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Kaja Kallas

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Kaja Kallas
Official portrait, 2024
Vice-President of the European Commission
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 December 2024
PresidentUrsula von der Leyen
Preceded byJosep Borrell
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 December 2024
PresidentUrsula von der Leyen
Preceded byJosep Borrell
19th Prime Minister of Estonia
In office
26 January 2021 – 23 July 2024
President
Preceded byJüri Ratas
Succeeded byKristen Michal
Leader of the Estonian Reform Party
In office
14 April 2018 – 8 September 2024
Preceded byHanno Pevkur
Succeeded byKristen Michal
Member of the Riigikogu
In office
3 March 2019 – 26 January 2021
ConstituencyHarju–Rapla
In office
6 March 2011 – 1 July 2014
ConstituencyHarju–Rapla
Member of the European Parliament for Estonia
In office
1 July 2014 – 5 September 2018
Personal details
Born (1977-06-18) 18 June 1977 (age 47)
Tallinn, Estonia
Political partyEstonian Reform Party (2010–present)
Spouses
Roomet Leiger
​
​
(m. 2002; div. 2006)​
Arvo Hallik
​
(m. 2018)​
Domestic partnerTaavi Veskimägi (2011–2014)
Children1
Parent(s)Siim Kallas (father)
Kristi Kallas (mother)
RelativesEduard Alver (great-grandfather)
Education
Websitekajakallas.ee

Kaja Kallas (Estonian: [ˈkɑjɑ ˈkɑlːɑs]; born 18 June 1977)[1] is an Estonian politician and diplomat. She was the first female prime minister of Estonia, a role she held from 2021 until 2024, when she resigned in advance of her appointment as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.[2] Since 2024, she has served as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission in the second von der Leyen Commission.

The leader of the Estonian Reform Party since 2018, she was a member of parliament (Riigikogu) in 2011–2014, and 2019–2021. Kallas was a member of the European Parliament in 2014–2018, representing the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Before her election to Riigikogu, she was a lawyer specialising in European competition law.

Ancestry, early life and education

Kaja Kallas was born in Tallinn on 18 June 1977. Her father, Siim Kallas, served as chairman of the Bank of Estonia from 1991 to 1995, as prime minister of Estonia from 2002 to 2003, and as a European Commissioner from 2004 to 2014.[3] Her mother, Kristi Kallas, née Kartus, is a physician. Kallas has an elder brother, Ülo Kallas, a financial executive.

Kallas' paternal great-grandfather, Eduard Alver (1886–1939), a lawyer, was the commander of the Estonian Defence League during the Estonian War of Independence from 1918 to 1920 and also served as the head of the country's police and the Internal Security Service.[4]

During Operation Priboi on 25-28 March 1949, Kallas' mother, Kristi, six months old at the time, was deported to Siberia with her mother and grandmother. She was allowed to return to Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1959.[5]

Apart from Estonian, Kallas patrilineally also has distant Latvian and Baltic German ancestry, as discovered by investigative journalists researching her father's ancestry shortly after his premiership.[6][7]

Kallas attended primary school at the Tallinn Lilleküla Gymnasium and secondary school at the Tallinn Secondary School No. 7 (today the Tallinn English College).[8] Kallas graduated from the University of Tartu in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in law. In 2007, Kallas began studying towards a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the Estonian Business School (EBS), which she did not complete.[9] She went on to obtain a one-year Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) from EBS in 2010.[10][11]

Professional career

From 1996 to 1997, Kallas worked as an advisor to the director of the Vanemuine theatre in Tartu.[12] Kallas became a member of the Estonian Bar Association in 1999, and an attorney-at-law in 2002. While training in European law, she briefly worked as a lawyer at the corporate law firms Courtois Lebel in Paris (March-April 2001) and Hannes Snellmann in Helsinki (October 2003).[13][14] She became a partner in the law firms Tark & Co and Luiga Mody Hääl Borenius, where she headed the competition law department from 2008 to 2011.[15] Kallas also worked as an executive coach at the Estonian Business School. In 2011, she was placed on inactive status as a member of the Estonian Bar Association.[16]

Between 2003 and 2010, Kallas was a council member of several Estonian private and public limited companies: LHV-Seesam Varahaldus, Pakri Tuulepark, Viru-Nigula Tuulepark, Hiiumaa Offshore Tuulepark, Paldiski Tuulepark, Tooma Tuulepark, Roheline Ring Tuulepargid, Biofond and 4E Tehnoinvest. In 2008, Kallas was a board member of Nelja Energia.[17]

From 2009 to 2010, Kallas was a board member of the Estonian Wind Power Association.[18]

Political career

Member of the Estonian Parliament (2011–2014)

In 2010, Kallas joined the Estonian Reform Party. In the 2011 parliamentary elections she won a seat in the Riigikogu (for the Harju County and Rapla County constituency) receiving 7,157 votes. She was a member of the 12th Parliament of Estonia and chaired the Economic Affairs Committee from 2011 to 2014.[16]

Member of the European Parliament (2014–2018)

In the 2014 European Parliament election in Estonia, Kallas received 21,498 votes.[16] In the European Parliament, Kallas served on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and was a substitute for the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. She was a vice-chair of the Delegation to the EU–Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee as well as a member of the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly and Delegation for relations with the United States.[1] In addition to her committee assignments, Kallas was a member of the European Parliament (MEP) Intergroup on the Digital Agenda,[19] and was also a vice-chair of the Youth Intergroup.[20]

During her period in Parliament, Kallas worked on the Digital Single Market strategy, energy, and consumer policies, and relations with Ukraine. In particular, she defended the rights of small and medium-sized enterprises, maintaining that borders in the digital world hinder the emergence of innovative companies. She is a proponent of innovation and frequently emphasises that regulations cannot and must not hinder the technological revolution.[1]

Kallas served as rapporteur for six reports: opinion on the ePrivacy Regulation,[21] civil law rules on robotics,[22] on the Annual report on EU Competition Policy,[23] and on Delivering a New Deal for Energy Consumers,[24] legislation on Custom infringements and sanctions,[25] and the own-initiative report on the Digital Single Market.[26] During her time in Parliament, she was also nominated as a European Young Leader (EYL40).[27] At the end of her term, she was cited by Politico as one of the 40 most influential MEPs, and one of the most powerful women in Brussels, who was highlighted for her understanding of technological issues.[28][29][30]

In November 2018, Kallas published her memoir MEP: 4 aastat Euroopa Parlamendis (MEP: Four Years in the European Parliament), in which she described her life and work in Brussels from 2014 to 2018.[31]

Return to national politics (2017–2020)

On 13 December 2017, the Reform Party leader Hanno Pevkur announced that he would no longer run for the party leadership in January 2018, and suggested that Kallas should run instead.[32] After considering the offer, Kallas announced on 15 December 2017 that she would accept the invitation to run in the leadership election.[33] Kallas won the leadership election held on 14 April 2018 and became the first female leader of a major political party in Estonia.[34]

In the 2019 Estonian parliamentary election on 3 March, the Reform Party led by Kallas received about 29% of the vote, with the ruling Estonian Centre Party taking 23%.[35] The Centre Party managed to form Jüri Ratas' second cabinet with the conservative Isamaa party and the far-right EKRE, leaving the Reform Party out of power.[36] On 14 November 2020, Kallas was re-elected as leader of the Reform Party at a Reform Party Assembly.[37]

Prime Minister of Estonia (2021–2024)

Kallas and Marin smiling at the camera
Kallas met with then Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin in Helsinki, 2021.

On 25 January 2021, after the fall of the Centre Party led cabinet with conservative parties, Kaja Kallas's first cabinet, a coalition with the Centre Party, was formed.[38] In doing so, she became the first female prime minister in Estonia's history.[39]

In June 2021, just five months into her term as prime minister, Kallas confronted German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a European Council meeting opposing Merkel's plan to invite Russia's dictator Vladimir Putin to a summit of European leaders.[40] Her daring opposition surprised other gathered leaders but was successful in forcing Merkel to abandon her plan to appease the dictator.[40]

Kallas met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, 2021.

During the latter half of 2021, the global energy crisis disrupted the Estonian economy; businesses were forced to temporarily shut down, while the public requested government aid to pay for the high electricity and heating prices.[41] Kallas initially resisted calls for government aid, suggesting that the government should search for long-term solutions rather than handing out benefits, and that a free market should not require consistent government intervention to keep people afloat.[42] The energy crisis nearly caused the collapse of the coalition government.[43] Kallas observed in a speech that the high cost of natural gas coupled with the Russian invasion of Ukraine was driving the increase in energy prices, and that the green energy measures Estonia adopted limited what the government could do to handle the crisis.[44] In January 2022, Kallas announced a 245 million euro plan to reduce the cost of energy from September 2021 to March 2022.[44] The energy crisis impacted her popularity in Estonia.[45]

Kallas met with U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken in Tallinn, 2022.

On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in January 2022, Kallas said that the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline was "a geopolitical project not an economic one" and urged that the pipeline be terminated. She also stated that Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas was a significant political problem.[46] In January 2022, Kallas committed Estonia to donating howitzers to Ukraine to assist in its defence against a possible Russian invasion, pending German approval as the howitzers were originally purchased from Germany.[47] When Germany delayed in giving an answer, Estonia sent American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles instead in the first weeks of February 2022.[48] Following Russia's recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, Kallas demanded that the European Union introduce sanctions on Russia.[49] Kallas was praised domestically for her leadership during the Russia-Ukraine crisis.[50] Subsequently, her approval rating soared, making her Estonia's most popular politician.[51]

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022, Estonia along with other allies triggered Article 4 of NATO.[52] Kallas pledged to support Ukraine with political and materiel support.[53] By April 2022, 0.8% of Estonia's GDP per capita in military equipment had been handed over to Ukraine. Kallas has been praised both in Estonia and internationally as a leading pro-Ukrainian voice in the war, with the New Statesman calling her "Europe's New Iron Lady".[54] She also strongly supported the admission of Ukraine to the European Union, saying that there was "a moral duty" to do so.[55] In April 2022, she warned against "peace at any price" with Russia.[56]

Kallas met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Brussels, 2022.

On 3 June 2022, Kallas dismissed all Centre Party ministers,[57] after the Centre Party had sided with the opposition to vote down the preschool education bill, that would have made teaching Estonian language mandatory in preschool.[58] Kallas symbolically resigned on 14 July 2022, to form a new coalition[59][60] with Social Democratic Party and Isamaa.[61]

As prime minister, Kallas attracted international attention as a leader in efforts to support Ukraine during the Russian invasion, delivering more military equipment to Ukraine as a proportion of GDP per capita than any other country in the world.[62] In September 2022, in the context of a plan by three other bordering nations to restrict Russian tourists, she said: "Travel to the European Union is a privilege, not a human right." She added that it was "unacceptable that citizens of the aggressor state are able to freely travel in the EU, whilst at the same time people in Ukraine are being tortured and murdered."[63] In February 2023, Kallas was mentioned as a possible candidate to replace NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg following his expected retirement that same year.[64] She rejected any peace agreement that would cede part of Ukrainian territory to Russia.[65]

In March 2023, Kallas led the Reform Party to a decisive victory in the 2023 parliamentary election, increasing the party's seat count in the Riigikogu by three seats.[66][67][68] Following the election result, Kallas negotiated a coalition government with Estonia 200 and the Social Democratic Party, and her third cabinet was sworn in on 17 April.[69][70][71][72] In June 2023, the government passed a bill legalising same-sex marriage and adoption in Estonia. The bill came into effect on 1 January 2024, making Estonia the first Baltic state and country formerly occupied by the Soviet Union to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption.[73][74][75]

Kallas met with North Macedonia Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski in Vilnius, 2023.

Kallas is a transatlanticist[76] and was frequently named as a potential candidate to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as Secretary General of NATO, a role she has expressed interest in.[77]

Kallas condemned Hamas' actions during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war and expressed her support to Israel and its right to self-defence, but added that Israel "must do so in a way that spares innocent lives and adheres to the norms of international law." She said the conflict in the Middle East "is useful to those seeking to distract the free world from its support for Ukraine."[78]

Husband's business scandal

In August 2023, the media reported that Kallas's husband, Arvo Hallik, had a 24.9% share in the transportation company Stark Logistics, which had continued to transport raw materials to Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, despite Kallas having previously called for Estonian companies to cease operations in Russia.[79][80][81][82][83][84] The company had generated approximately €1.5 million in revenue from providing a transport service to a company operating in Russia since the beginning of the invasion.[85]

Kallas later admitted to her husband's share in the company, but denied wrongdoing on the part of herself or her husband and stated that the company's business in Russia was to assist an Estonian client, identified by the Estonian media as the company Metaprint, end its production in Russia, adding that "not a single euro, dollar or ruble" was spent in Russia as part of the activity.[86][87][88] Media reported that Kallas had provided an undeclared €350,000 loan to her husband shortly after visiting Metaprint as prime minister in January 2022.[89][90] Stark Logistics seconded Kallas's claim that the company's dealings in Russia were to assist an Estonian client end their production in the country, and that their work did not contribute to the Russian economy in any way nor did it violate Estonian law, as Kallas's government had prohibited only state-owned companies from working with Russia.[86][91] The Estonian media has separately reported that Metaprint sold €17 million worth of goods to Russia between the start of the invasion in February 2022 and November 2022.[88][92][93] Hallik's business partner Martti Lemendik later admitted in the Estonian media that the company had sold over $32 million in goods on the Russian market between February 2022 and August 2023.[94] The company also collaborated with sanctioned individuals, such as Polish-sanctioned Sergei Kolesnikov.[95][96] Hallik later stated that he would sell his shares in Stark Logistics.[85]

Tanel Kiik of the opposition Centre Party noted that "the scandal has severely damaged the reputation of the Estonian state", while President of Estonia Alar Karis stated his worry for seeing "the credibility of the Estonian state called into question, in its relations with its allies" and fears that it "creates a precedent for the future and affects the reputation of Estonian democracy".[97][98] Two opinion polls conducted by Norstat and Turu-uuringute AS showed that 57% and 69% of respondents, respectively, thought Kallas should resign due to the scandal.[99][85] Kallas continued to refuse to resign in September 2023, calling the controversy a "witch-hunt" by political opponents.[100]

Russian arrest warrant

On 13 February 2024, Russian officials stated that Kallas had been put on the Russian interior ministry's register of people wanted on criminal charges, reportedly related to the removal of Soviet World War II monuments in Estonia.[101] Kallas is the first head of government known to be added to the register by Russian authorities.[102] Kallas dismissed the warrant as a "scare tactic" by Russia.[103]

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (2024–present)

On 28 June 2024, Kallas was nominated to become High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. A confirmatory vote by the European Parliament is expected to take place in November.[104] She formally resigned as prime minister on 15 July,[105] but remained in office until the creation of a new government on 22 July.[106] She will also become Vice-President of the European Commission. In November 2024, she stated that the People's Republic of China must pay a "higher cost" for its support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[107]

On 1 December 2024, her first day in office as High Representative, Kallas visited Ukraine along with European Council President Antonio Costa and Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos.[108] Kallas expressed strong support for Ukrainian victory, stating that "the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war".[108] The trip was criticized by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who stated, without further elaboration, that Kallas and Costa had made statements that had not been agreed upon by EU bodies.[109][110]

On her first day in office, Kallas also warned the Georgian government not to use violence to suppress the ongoing protests against the ruling party's decision to postpone EU accession talks, threatening possible sanctions.[111]

Personal life

From 2002 to 2006, Kallas was married to Roomet Leiger. She lived together with former finance minister and businessman Taavi Veskimägi. Kallas and Veskimägi have one son; they separated in 2014. [112] In 2018, she married Arvo Hallik, a banker and investor. Hallik has two children from a previous relationship.[113][114][115]

Apart from her native Estonian, Kallas is fluent in English, Finnish, Russian and French.[116]

She is known for reading history books, and is friends with historians Timothy Garton Ash and Timothy Snyder.[116]

Honours

State decorations

Awards and prizes

Other activities

Since 2020, Kallas has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Europe.[128] Additionally, she is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations,[129] an advisory board member of the Women Economic Forum,[130] and a patron of the Model European Union Tallinn.[131][non-primary source needed] She is also a mentor of the European Liberal Youth, a member of the European Young Leaders, a MEP ambassor of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs, a member of the MEP Library Lovers Group, a political member of the European Internet Forum, a member of the extended board of the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources, a member of the Global Young Leaders, a member of the Women Political Leaders, and a MEP ambassador of the European Entrepreneurship Education Network.[132]

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Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of Estonia
2021–2024 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Vice-President of the European Commission
2024–present 		Incumbent
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
2024–present
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Reform Party
2018–2024 		Succeeded by
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