Good morning from Brussels, An informal dinner of EU leaders tonight in Brussels is expected to reach an in-principle “package deal” on the next EU top jobs, several diplomats and officials told Euractiv. “There is some urgency to get a deal by the end of the month,” one EU diplomat said, adding, "Considering the general fragility in Europe’s neighbourhood, there is no time to waste”. The same diplomat admitted that a disagreement over von der Leyen would have a spill-over effect on other top jobs, something that many want to avoid. The names on the table – next to Ursula von der Leyen at the helm of the EU’s executive – are Portugal’s Socialist Prime Minister António Costa for European Council president, Estonia’s Liberal Prime Minister Kaja Kallas for the EU’s top diplomat post and incumbent European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to continue in her current position. Alexandra Brzozowski and Sarantis Michalopoulos have the story. In Berlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that “everything” looks like “there can be a second term of office for Ursula von der Leyen.” He added, though, that a prerequisite for his support is for von der Leyen to rely “on the traditional parties and not on very right-wing parties.” Meanwhile, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who represents the EU hard-right, has so far kept her cards secret. In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron, criticised on Sunday by former president Nicolas Sarkozy for his decision to call snap elections after the heavy defeat from the far-right, said it is possible to reach a deal on EU top jobs “in the coming days”. | 
