Politico: Kallas gave top EU official the ax and governments aren’t happy

TALLINN - The European Union's new foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, has outraged governments and officials over her decision to boot out her department's top civil servant, Politico reported last week.

Italian EU veteran Stefano Sannino is leaving his post as secretary general of the bloc's External Action Service and moving to a senior role at the European Commission where he started his EU career.

The decision by Kallas has ruffled feathers just a week after the new EU leadership began work. The move has shocked and dismayed people who worked with Sannino in Brussels and in national capitals, according to four EU officials who spoke to Politico.

"Several member states were quite irritated about this decision," one EU diplomat said. "You don’t let the pilot disembark the ship when a new crew has to navigate stormy waters."

Others said the decision signaled that Kallas -- already one of the most prominent members of the EU’s new top brass -- is prepared to rock the boat and put her own stamp on the institution she will lead for the next five years.

Sannino reaches the retirement age of 65 this month, but the Commission could ask him to stay longer. He had been widely expected to stay on in the EEAS role.

An urbane, opera-loving former Italian ambassador and senior Commission official, Sannino is a well-known figure in Brussels. As secretary general of the EU’s foreign policy wing, he has an outsized influence on European foreign affairs, shaping everything from the bloc’s Ukraine policy to its relationship with the United States.

But his early exit means a vacancy at the apex of the EEAS. The position has already been advertised with a closing date for applications of Dec. 16.

Some of the names floating in Brussels in recent weeks include French Ambassador Philippe Léglise-Costa and European Commission Secretary General Ilze Juhansone.

Juhansone, a former Latvian ambassador, who is currently the top EU official at the Commission, is a close ally of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her chief of staff Bjoern Seibert.

Should Juhansone clinch the top job at the EEAS it could be seen as a power grab by von der Leyen, who has a highly centralized, top-down management style as Commission boss. But it would also mean that with Kallas, a second person from a Baltic country would play a key role in foreign policy, a prospect that doesn't sit well with some governments.