Don’t be ‘greedy’ in top jobs brawl, Xavier Bettel warns EU conservatives

On top of securing a second term for Germany’s European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and another two and a half years for Malta’s Roberta Metsola as European Parliament president, the EPP wants part of the European Council presidency, which is currently held by Belgium’s Charles Michel, six officials told POLITICO last week.

Earlier last week, the idea of splitting up the job of European Council president was floated by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in an internal EPP meeting, according to two of the officials.

Von der Leyen will need 361 votes in the Parliament (out of 720) in a secret ballot that could be held as soon as July 18 to keep her job. Adding up all the center-right EPP, center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and liberal Renew members of the Parliament gets her to 398. But not everyone in the EPP and S&D will back her, and Renew is shedding members.

“We are confident about getting a deal through at the European Council,” said an EPP official on condition of anonymity about the first procedural step, but added that “the European Parliament was always going to be a challenge.”

If EU leaders feel that von der Leyen won’t make it through the Parliament, they can buy time by nominating her but push the vote by MEPs from July to September — as happened in 2009 when José Manuel Barroso was reelected as Commission president.