The era of Antonio Costa begins at the European Council. The former Portuguese prime minister was called to lead what is in fact the most powerful institution in Brussels, the assembly that brings together the 27 heads of state and government. And his task, like that of his predecessors, will not be easy. The socialist will have the complicated task of being able to bring together the quarrelsome leaders of the bloc, whose interests and worldviews are often in conflict. And he knows this well, having been part of the Council for eight years as prime minister of his country in three consecutive governments.
Costa is the first person belonging to an ethnic minority to head an EU institution. His paternal grandfather was originally from Goa, an Indian state that ceased to be part of the Portuguese empire a few months after the birth of the president, while his paternal grandmother was French-Mozambican.
The origins
Born in Lisbon in 1961, Costa is the son of a communist immigrant from Mozambique, he graduated in law and dedicated himself to politics as a boy, joining the country’s Socialist Youth. At 14, she organized a strike at her high school to protest the unjustified expulsion of her headmistress following a post-revolution political reprisal. He boycotted the exams and was forced to repeat the year.
“I was born when Portugal was a dictatorship, into a family that actively fought against the regime. My father was an underground communist militant, he was arrested three times. He was also a writer: all his books were censored. My mother, on the other hand, was a journalist”, she said in a recent interview with Financial Times.
The donkey and the Ferrari
However, he made his first electoral campaign at the age of over 30, in 1993 when he ran for the position of mayor of Loures, a suburb of Lisbon. That’s when he organized a race between a Ferrari and a donkey during rush hour to highlight the need for a subway. The donkey won but Costa lost, albeit narrowly. However, he did not lose faith in himself and so in 2007 he was elected mayor of Lisbon and eight years later, he won his first of three terms as prime minister. The third then ended abruptly when the socialist was overwhelmed by a corruption scandal. Or rather by a sensational miscarriage of justice. On 7 November 2023, Costa’s chief of staff was arrested, and the police also raided the offices of the prime minister, whose name appeared in some of the wiretaps. The socialist resigned immediately, while claiming his innocence. Innocence which was confirmed when it was later discovered that the Antonio Costa mentioned in the intercepted phone calls was not him, but a simple namesake.
The exchange of person
The politician’s prestige was therefore not affected, and his former colleagues personally chose him to lead the European Council. The socialist has said he wants to use his Indian heritage to redefine Europe’s often unequal relations with Asia, Africa and South America. While the EU has historically had good relations with the United States, the colonial history of some of its members has often been an obstacle to creating strong ties with the rest of the world. With the southern hemisphere. Costa could overcome this impasse: after all, he has already succeeded in this in the past. During a visit to India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally handed him an Overseas Citizen card which gives him permanent residence and work privileges.
Mend the institutional rift
His first task will be to create a more relaxed climate than in the past with the European Commission. There was bad blood between his predecessor, the Belgian Charles Michel, and the president of the executive Ursula von der Leyen. There has always been a clash of personalities between them which has led to a not too harmonious relationship between the two institutions whose headquarters, the Europa Building and the Berlaymont building, are located opposite each other in Ruxelles, separated only from rue de la Loi. The Portuguese and the German already know each other and have a good relationship. Costa is well-liked by colleagues for his pragmatism and sense of humor. “Von der Leyen and I have a very good personal and political relationship. So we just need to work on this to build our working relationship,” he told the FT, explaining that the two are already discussing how to divide responsibilities and avoid conflicts. The new president and his team will take office on 1 December and the new working methods will soon be put to the test with the summit with the leaders of the 6 Western Balkan countries on 18 December, followed by the European summit scheduled for 19 and 20 December.
All in retreat
Overall, Costa’s plan is to try to make Council meetings more streamlined and operational. At the moment, the leaders of the Twenty-Seven usually meet for two days, with discussions that go on for hours and hours to refine often long-term conclusions and on which the negotiations often get stuck to eliminate or modify even just one word. According to the Portuguese, all this must stop. “What we want is to have shorter conclusions, because we don’t need each Council to once again discuss all the problems of the world. We need to focus each Council on a political message,” Costa said.
To then prepare for the discussions, Costa, as is done with footballers, would like to organize ‘retreats’ for the European leaders, moments with less media pressure, and in which no conclusions or announcements are expected, to allow the heads of state and government to exchange ideas. The first is scheduled for February 1st in Belgium and will be dedicated to defense issues. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also be guests. On paper the plan to improve the Council’s modus operandi seems ambitious, but Costa will need all of his father’s revolutionary spirit to implement it. As anyone who consistently follows community politics knows, the European machine is slow and cumbersome. Trying to transform the donkey into a Ferrari, or at least finally managing to get the subway line built, will not be child’s play.
