European Commission (EC) chief Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second term, has pledged to make strengthening the European Union’s (EU) defence sector and continuing the fight on climate protection part of her political agenda.
Von der Leyen said she would launch a “Clean Industrial Deal” in her first 100 days in office in a bid to boost European manufacturing in the face of global competition. She reiterated her commitment to the EU’s plans to become the first climate-neutral continent by mid-century and said the next European Commission would pave the way for a 90 per cent reduction in emissions in 2040. She wrote in a series of political guidelines for the next European Commission published on Thursday:
“The world is in a race that will dictate who will be the first to climate neutrality and first to develop the technologies that will shape the global economy for decades to come. Europe cannot afford to fall behind and lose its competitive edge in this race, nor can it leave any strategic vulnerabilities exposed.”
She also outlined a new approach to competition policy that should reflect changing global trends and prevent market concentration from raising prices or reducing the quality of goods and services.
Defence development
Von der Leyen promised to create a European defence fund, introduce the post of European defence commissioner and implement a project to create a European air defence shield. She also stated the need for EU countries to spend more on defence and to develop the defence industry. According to the EC president, the EU should take into account the global trend towards geostrategic rivalry, particularly with China, in its current foreign policy.
The European Parliament will decide whether to confirm Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president in a sharp vote on Thursday that will either result in the re-election for a second term of the EU’s first female executive leader or plunge the bloc into crisis.
Von der Leyen was nominated by EU leaders last month for a second five-year term as head of the EU executive, which is responsible for drafting and enforcing EU law. She now needs to win the support of at least 361 MEPs, a simple majority in the newly elected, more right-wing parliament.
On paper, von der Leyen has the numbers, as the three groups that officially backed her in 2019 – the centre-right European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats and the centrist Renew (Renew) – have 401 MEPs. But the MEP factions are not very disciplined, and experts expect about 10-15 per cent of MEPs to deviate from the party line under the guise of a secret ballot. She cannot even count on the unanimous support of her own EPP faction. Ursula von der Leyen may have particular difficulties with the Renew group – four of its members, Fianna Fáil, have said they will not vote for her, claiming she has been too supportive of Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.
Billie Kelleher, Renew’s vice-president, said that under her leadership the EU had ceased to be “perceived as an honest broker in the Middle East peace process.” Since her nomination, von der Leyen has spent hours in boardrooms with representatives of various political groups, listening to their wishes and urging them to vote.
The group talks continued until Wednesday evening. She will set out her programme for the next five years in a speech to the Strasbourg assembly on Thursday at 9 a.m. local time. The programme is likely to focus on improving EU competitiveness amid concerns – particularly from her own EPP group – that Europe’s economic weight is declining relative to the US and China. It is also expected to promise a continuation of the Green Deal and outline ideas for financing the green transition needed to tackle the climate crisis.
Other topics likely to be high on her agenda are Ukraine’s accession to the EU and the geopolitical threats in Europe. Von der Leyen may take a more restrained stance when it comes to protecting Europe’s critically degraded forests, grasslands, peatlands and seas.
She has previously scrapped plans to cut pesticide use and reduce pollution due to mass protests by farmers and faced calls from the right to weaken environmental laws. The Greens, potential leaders with 53 MEPs, tend to be more disciplined than other groups but insist they will not decide how to vote until von der Leyen addresses the Strasbourg assembly on Thursday morning.
Vaccine case
Meanwhile, the EU’s largest court has found that Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission was not sufficiently transparent about COVID-19 vaccine contracts during her first term as president of the European Commission.
In a ruling published today, the General Court of the European Union said the Commission “did not provide the public with sufficiently broad access” to contracts for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic. It said the Commission had “granted only partial access” to the vaccine contract documents because they had been published online with redacted parts.
The case concerns vaccine procurement contracts in 2020 and 2021, when some €2.7bn was “quickly released” to allow an order for more than 1bn doses of vaccine to be placed at the height of the pandemic. But in 2021, some MEPs from different parties, including the Greens, as well as private individuals requested access to the agreements to understand their terms and ensure that the public interest was protected when the deal was signed. In its rulings, the court partially upheld the MEPs’ claim and overturned the Commission’s decisions to redact sections of the agreements.
Von der Leyen criticises Orbán for his attempts to find peace over Ukraine conflict
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is reacting with a boycott decision to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s attempt to find a solution to the Ukrainian military conflict.
She announced that future informal ministerial meetings led by Hungary’s current presidency of the EU Council will not include female commissioners or commissioners, but only high-ranking officials. In addition, the EU Commission will refrain from the traditional inaugural visit to the Hungarian presidency, the spokesman said.
Earlier, 63 MEPs called for Hungary to be stripped of its voting rights in the EU Council in a letter to the heads of EU institutions, saying, “Hungary’s presidency has only just begun and Prime Minister Orbán has already done significant damage.”
