EU leaders select top officials for world's biggest trading bloc

European Union leaders have signed off on a trio of top appointments for their shared political institutions, reinstalling German conservative Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission for another five years.

At the side of von der Leyen, who heads up the EU’s executive branch, would be two new faces: Antonio Costa of Portugal as European Council president and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas as the top diplomat of the world’s largest trading bloc.

"Satisfaction," said on Thursday Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council President. "For Poland and for Europe."

Both von der Leyen and Kallas should now be approved by European lawmakers. Costa's nomination only needed the leaders' approval, and he will start in his new role in the fall.

After the three centrist political families in the European Parliament struck a deal earlier this week, the top jobs package was widely expected to be approved at the two-day summit starting Thursday in Brussels.

Conservative dissatisfaction

But far-right politicians, emboldened by their strong showing in EU parliament elections earlier this month, slammed it as a stitch-up in the run-up to the meeting.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made clear her displeasure at being excluded from preparatory talks with a small group of leaders who divvied up the top jobs.

Her nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists group emerged as the third force in the European Parliament elections this month.

Meloni voted against Portugal's Costa and Estonia's Kallas, two sources close to the discussions told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Meloni abstained on von der Leyen for European Commission president, the same sources confirmed. The two officials requested anonymity in line with EU practice.

In the end, only one leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, voted against the tripartite deal.

"European voters were cheated," he said on Facebook on Thursday evening. "We do not support this shameful agreement!" His objections were moot: the package only needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

Under the EU's complicated division of powers, the leaders get to nominate the next president of the European Commission, which is responsible for drawing up EU policy on everything from the climate to the colossal shared budget.

The European Council president's job is to broker deals between the EU's member states, while the top diplomat represents the bloc on the world stage.