Ursula von der Leyen has bagged a major hire in her drive to tighten her grip on EU foreign policy: Simon Mordue, a veteran official who once advised the European Commission president’s archrival, former European Council President Charles Michel, and most recently served under the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.  

Mordue, who blows off steam running or cycling, brings deep experience, with a portfolio spanning Africa, Turkey and the Western Balkans. One of the architects of the EU-Turkey migration pact struck during the Syrian refugee crisis, he has held senior roles inside the Commission on migration, asylum and enlargement and is one of the few figures inside the EU machine who has direct experience of negotiations with world leaders. He will back up the president’s chief of staff, Björn Seibert, who is increasingly acting as an envoy in high-stakes talks with the U.S. administration.  

A seasoned British-Irish EU official with more than three decades in the institutions, Mordue’s move to the Commission president’s office raised eyebrows because of von der Leyen’s fraught relationship with his former bosses. Von der Leyen’s drive to expand her authority put her at odds with Michel — most famously in the Sofagate debacle, when he relegated her to a couch during a meeting with Turkey’s leader. It now risks exacerbating a similar clash with Kallas, who has been sidelined by the Commission president in recent high-level diplomatic offensives.   

Check out the full 10 to Watch list, the POLITICO 28: Class of 2026, and read the Letter from the Editors for an explanation of the thinking behind the ranking.