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14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 JUNE 2024 ANALYSIS MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Clock ticks as Europe tries to make EU leaders are hoping they can approve the EU's top jobs package next week with a European Parlia- ment that would back incumbent EC president Ursula von der Ley- en in mid-July, for a new Euro- pean Commission to be installed around 1 November. If EU leaders fail to agree on a package next week, they are set to meet again for an extra Euro- pean Council in the summer (and if necessary, another one, and an- other one). The next opportunity to vote on the future leader of the EU's executive in the European Parliament is not until September (if there is no consensus in July), which would also delay the start of the next European Commission. But they failed this week to agree on who shoud fill the top jobs of EC president, Council president and external affairs commission- er. For the horse-trading between the EU members' ambassadors and delagates is fraught with ques- tions of influence, of geographical balance, and the right political representation – a recipe concoct- ed under intense conditions. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a leading figure in the hard-right European Conserva- tives and Reformists group in the EU Parliament, has emerged as a new force within the European constellation of decision-makers now that the ECR parties have become the third largest political bloc in the EP. The far-right Fratelli d'Italia (FdL) leader is expecting to take her place on the negotiating table on the names of the EU's leaders, after complaining about excluded from the top jobs decision-mak- ing on the next president of the European Commission, the Euro- pean Council, as well as the High Representative. Each of the three main political families — the EPP, the socialists and the liberals — have appointed two leaders as their political nego- tiators during talks on who should fill the EU's top jobs. But Nicola Procaccini, an MEP from Meloni's party, has already declared that the Italian PM will be seeking more influence on the European table if Ursula von der Leyen is to get a second shot at the European Commission presi- dency. Now the third biggest in the 720-seat European Parliament, ahead of the liberals Renew, Mel- oni's ECR will not be part of the political coalition supporting von der Leyen: "When we were at the European Council, some arrived with proposals for the top jobs without even reflecting on what the indications of voters were and the change in step on priorities," Meloni said this week. "I think those trying to do this deal tried to rush because they realize that it could be a fragile agreement." Selecting the Commission president A crucial choice by the EU's leaders is whether to accept Ursu- la von der Leyen for a second stint at the presidency of the European Commission. As 'spitzenkandidat' – or lead candidate for the winning party, the European People's Party – Von der Leyen is the first nominee for the post of running the Euro- pean executive, which runs both the EU as well as propose new laws to the European Parliament. The choice of Von der Leyen is a matter to be decided by heads of government in the European Council, a decision not always dictated by party allegiance. Yet now the EPP are expecting not only first pick on the EC presi- dency; they also think the Council presidency for the next five years, EU leaders will try to seal the structure of the next European leadership triad in a fraught game of horse-trading and negotiating around all the capitals of the EU