Why EU leaders choked on a dinner deal for the bloc’s top brass

Good morning. A scoop to start: Mark Rutte has promised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán an opt-out of Nato activities supporting Ukraine, officials told us, in a pledge seen easing Orbán’s long-held veto on the Dutchman becoming secretary-general of the military alliance.

Today, we explain why last night EU leaders said they needed more time to digest a proposed dinner deal relating to the bloc’s next slate of top officials, and Finland’s new-ish president tells our man in the Nordics that even he is surprised at how prepared the country is for a possible Russian attack.

Denouement, deferred

Political bickering and bruised egos derailed an attempt to get the EU’s next slate of top officials appointed in record time last night — and may have injected some jeopardy into a process that had otherwise seemed straightforward.

Context: EU leaders last night asked for more time to haggle over the appointment of officials to lead the bloc for the next five years. While there was no faction blocking a proposed triumvirate of Ursula von der Leyen as commission president, António Costa as council president and Kaja Kallas as chief diplomat, there was no stone-cold consensus either.

Officials briefed on the private dinner discussions said three main issues were to blame.

First, 21 leaders — including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — were left twiddling their thumbs for hours at the start of the meeting while six centrist (and male) leaders — from France, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain — first struck their own private deal as representatives of the three largest parties in the newly elected European parliament.

“They met politically and it insulted the others,” one official said. “Meloni was mad as hell,” said a second. A third said the issue was not the names, but the “political method”.

Secondly, the dinner party mood was not helped by von der Leyen’s European People’s party questioning whether Costa would serve for five years — as his successors have done — or perhaps just half of that. Political negotiation tactic or not, it disrupted a three-way proposal that seemed otherwise settled.

And finally, many leaders wanted to hold more discussions over the policy priorities for the next five years, ahead of their next summit on June 27 when a final decision is expected. That’s diplomatic speak for securing more prizes and concessions in exchange.

However Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that the negotiations were much easier than in 2019. “This is milk and honey. This is a very easy situation. Compared to the last time, it was a very enjoyable evening,” he said.

Chart du jour: Trimming the bacon

Trade tensions between China and the EU are escalating: Beijing has opened an anti-dumping investigation into EU pork imports, after the EU imposed tariffs on electric vehicle shipments from China.

Bring it on

Finland has long been considered the country best prepared to fight off a potential Russian attack. But even its new President Alexander Stubb is surprised by just how ready it is, writes Richard Milne.

Context: Finland has stockpiles of several months’ supply of all raw materials, food, military equipment, and more. It also has plans for what companies and people would do in the event of war, a pandemic, or other crisis, and insists there are very high levels of public support for defending the country.

Stubb, the former prime minister who became president about 100 days ago, told the FT that he was being briefed daily “on military intelligence, civilian intelligence, military operations, civil resilience, security of supply mechanisms in case of crisis”.

“I’ve never felt more secure. The feeling I have is: we’ve got this. And Russia knows this,” Stubb said.

Finland joining Nato last year “has exponentially strengthened the alliance on its eastern flank”, the Finnish president added.

Finland is keen to join the same Nato command as the other Nordic countries, based in Norfolk in the US, rather than the command in Brunssum, Netherlands used by the Baltic countries. Last week, Nato defence ministers gave their green light for the move, as well as for building two Nato land structures in Finland.

Tomorrow, Stubb travels to Bodø inside the Arctic Circle until Thursday, to meet Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Swedish premier Ulf Kristersson.

Stubb said Nato countries needed to be “calm but firm” with Russia regarding hybrid incidents such as sabotage or the instrumentalisation of migrants. “I say prepare for the worst in order to avoid it. We are very calm. It’s the only way you can be with Russia. If you get het up or emotional, then you make mistakes,” he said.

What to watch today

1. Argentine President Javier Milei travels to Czech Republic.

2. EU general affairs ministers meet in Luxembourg.

Now read these

• Scylla and Charybdis: French CEOs were scared of the far-right’s economic agenda. Then they saw the far-left’s platform.

• Delay, delay: The EU will defer new global Basel banking rules by one year, as the US will fail to meet its end of year implementation deadline.

• Green light: EU ministers have approved a new law to protect and rewild nature, following months of controversies and backlash by farmers and industry.