EU leaders are set to agree on a package deal to divide up the European Union's top jobs at a two-day summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
The pre-packaged pact, informally agreed among EU leaders, and confirmed by dpa, would see current European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen nominated for a second term.
Former Portuguese prime minister António Costa should be the next European Council president and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is the leaders' pick to be the EU's new foreign policy chief.
The agreement on the top jobs was negotiated among the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group and the liberal Renew Europe group.
The EU's top jobs are shared out after European Parliament elections in an intricate process that is meant to account for the results of the vote, according to the EU treaties.
In practice, the path to power is more complicated, and national and European politics take over, with EU leaders haggling over their preferences to fill the bloc's most important policy positions.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has pushed hard for one of the top jobs to be given to a member of the soft-eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which includes her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party and came third in the European Parliament elections.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also hit out at the deal. In a post on X, the conservative leader said "EU top officials should represent every member state, not just leftists and liberals."
Arriving at the summit in Brussels on Thursday, Orbán told journalists that the deal is "shameful" and that there should have been a deal between the top three performers from the elections.
The EPP and the S&D respectively came first and second in the elections, but Renew came fourth, behind the ECR.
"It's not based on the merit of the election. If it would be based on the merit of election, that would be EPP, socialist, and ECR, which is the number three," Orbán said.
Unlike Meloni's FdI, Orbán's Fidesz party is not affiliated to any political group in the European Parliament.
While Fidesz enjoys friendly relations with some ECR parties - such as Poland's Law and Justice Party (PiS) - other ECR members, such as Belgium's New Flemish Alliance, have refused to countenance admitting Fidesz into the group.
But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte insisted Meloni had not been excluded.
"She is not left out. The only problem is that once every five years the members of the European Council are mainly party politicians. The other five years we are really heads of government and/or presidents. We represent our entire country here. But once every five years it is a party political process."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated his support for the pact on Thursday.
"Our intention is that the political platform that has supported Mrs von der Leyen in the past should continue to do so in the future," said Scholz, referring to an agreement between the EPP, S&D and Renew.
Von der Leyen is a member of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is affiliated to the EPP and is the principal domestic opponent of Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD), a member of the S&D group.
The three names were the front runners for the roles over a week ago in Brussels - the last time EU leaders tried to reach a deal amongst themselves - but they did not reach the finish line.
After her nomination by EU leaders, von der Leyen needs to be elected to the commission by a majority in the European Parliament in the coming weeks.
The EU legislature must also approve Kallas for the role of EU foreign policy chief. Costa does not require parliamentary approval to assume his role as European Council president.
EU leaders are also set to debate the Israel-Hamas war, financing the defence industry, economic competitiveness, as well as adopt a strategic agenda for the next five years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a security agreement in Brussels with the EU on Thursday and briefed EU leaders on the situation on the front line in Ukraine.