The EU has 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 champions of tougher sanctions on Moscow.
The EU leaders also approved Ursula von der Leyen’s third five-year term as the president of the European Commission, and backed the former foreign minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, as the new president of the European Council.
Euronews cited two sources as saying that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni voted against Kallas’ candidacy, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban abstained.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kallas wrote that the 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 that allows using seized Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
She urged the EU to boost the deliveries of weapons to Ukraine and increase the bloc’s own defense capabilities. “Our aim must be to manufacture more munitions than Russia,” Kallas said in March.
Russia blacklisted Kallas earlier this year and issued a warrant for her arrest, citing “hostile policies towards Russia.
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