At the summit held on Thursday in Brussels after the European Parliament (EP) elections, the names that will lead the EU for the next five years were announced.

EU leaders elected Antonio Costa as president of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission and outgoing Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Beginning his career as a lawyer, Costa was elected as an MP by the Socialist Party of Portugal in 1991. He was appointed Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in 1997.

Costa served as Minister of Justice from 1999 to 2002 and chaired the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party between 2002 and 2004.

Costa's EU career began in 2004. He became an MEP from the Socialist Party and served as EP Vice President in 2004-2005.

Costa was subsequently appointed Portugal's interior minister, before being elected mayor of Lisbon in 2007, 2009 and 2013. He also served as a member of the European Committee of the Regions from 2010 to 2015.

Costa ran as leader of the Socialist Party in the 2015 legislative elections, but lost. However, Costa formed an alliance with leftist opposition parties and led a coalition government, becoming prime minister for the first time.

Costa served as Portugal's prime minister from November 2015 until July 2023, when he resigned amid an investigation into allegations of corruption in public tenders related to lithium and green hydrogen.

Costa will chair the council, the decision-making body made up of the heads of EU member states, and will host summits to determine the EU's overall political direction and priorities.

- Ursula von der Leyen

von Der Leyen's political career began in 1990 when she joined the CDU party, becoming a member of the Lower Saxony Parliament and holding various ministerial posts in the state government.

In 2005, von der Leyen began participating in the federal government when she was appointed minister for family and youth affairs in the cabinet of then-chancellor Angela Merkel. She then served as Minister of Labor and Social Affairs from 2009 to 2013.

Von der Leyen became Germany's first female defense minister in 2013, a post she held until 2019.

Her journey to becoming president of the European Commission began with her nomination in July 2019. The seasoned politician on 1 December 2019 became the first woman to be elected president of the commission, with the support of most EP and EU leaders -'s

Von der Leyen will chair the commission, the EU's executive body, which will initiate the legislative process by proposing laws, implement the acquis and the budget, and carry out administrative oversight.

- Kaja Kallas

Kallas, who will serve as the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy for five years, is also Estonia's first female prime minister.

The daughter of former Estonian prime minister and EU commissioner, Siim Kallas, decided to follow in her father's footsteps by quitting her job as a lawyer and entered the Estonian Parliament in 2011 as a member of the liberal Reform Party. She served in the EP from 2014 to 2018.

Kallas returned to her seat in 2019 and became an MP again and was elected prime minister in the 2021 elections. The Russian-Ukrainian war, which broke out when she had only been prime minister for a year, was the turning point in Kallas' career.

Kallas, who has been prominent for her anti-Russian rhetoric since taking office before the war, has been hailed as Europe's new "Iron Lady".

Demanding unconditional support for Ukraine, as well as expressing a tougher stance against Russia, she became a target of the Kremlin. Russia placed Kallas on its most wanted list in February 2024.

Kallas, who was named as NATO's new secretary general in the coming months, expressed her interest in the position, but the idea that a leader on Russia's wanted list would further strain relations prevailed.

Kallas, the new high representative of the EU, is the first Eastern European politician to hold this post. She will also be the first Estonian politician to hold a senior position in the EU administration.

She will be responsible for the Union's foreign and security policy and will also serve as vice-president of the European Commission. /AA