EU nominates Russia hawk to be bloc’s next top diplomat
EU leaders have officially nominated Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas to replace Josep Borrell as the bloc’s top diplomat. Kallas is known for her hawkish position on Russia and has been one of the most outpoken proponents of tougher sanctions on Moscow.
The leaders also backed Ursula von der Leyen to serve a third five-year term as president of the European Commission, and named former foreign minister of Portugal Antonio Costa as the new president of the European Council.
The nominations for Kallas and Von der Leyen are not final, and require approval by the European Parliament at a vote next month. However, Costa is automatically elected by the leaders of the 27 member states.
Euronews cited two sources as saying that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni voted against Kallas, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban abstained.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kallas wrote that the potential new post would be “an enormous responsibility at this moment of geopolitical tensions.”
“The war in Europe, increasing instability in our neighborhood and globally are the main challenges for European foreign policy,” she wrote, promising to “work on achieving EU unity” and “protect the EU’s interests and values in the changed geopolitical context.”
Kallas has repeatedly called for stronger sanctions on Moscow and backed the idea of using frozen Russian assets to fund aid for Kiev. In May, Estonia’s parliament passed a law allowing the use of seized Russian assets to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine.
She has urged the EU to boost deliveries of weapons to Ukraine and increase the bloc’s own defense capabilities. “Our aim must be to manufacture more munitions than Russia,” the Estonian prime minister said in March.
Russia blacklisted Kallas earlier this year and issued a warrant for her arrest, citing “hostile policies towards Russia.
