Brussels was discovered in a situation of deep division due to the European Parliament’s refusal to adopt the green agenda.
Green Deal issue
Socialists and liberals in the European Parliament are furious over the “unprecedented” move by the European Commission and the betrayal by the European People’s Party (EPP), which “decided to join forces with the far-right in a crusade against the “Green Deal,” EUNews reports.
This refers to the directive on so-called greenwashing adopted by the European Parliament in January 2024, when companies advertise their environmental achievements instead of actually promoting the green agenda. A striking example is the labelling of agricultural chemical containers with green trees and leaves.
The European Commission then specified what could be considered ‘misleading environmental claims’: “Any text, image, graphic or symbol in any form, including labels, brand names, company names or product names, in the context of commercial communication, which assert or imply that a product or trader has a positive or zero impact on the environment or causes less damage to the environment than other products or traders, respectively, or has improved its impact over time.”
A study conducted by the European Commission in 2020 analysing online environmental claims showed that more than half of the claims examined were nothing more than “greenwashing.”
The fact is that the green environmental agenda being pushed maniacally by Brussels is killing the Old World’s economy, and European companies are resisting it as best they can.
Today, the directive banning “greenwashing” directly affects “30 million micro-enterprises, which account for 96% of all companies in the EU.”
“According to the Commission, the administrative burden required to comply with the directive will undermine the competitiveness of these businesses, and competitiveness is now the Commission’s top priority after the shift to the right following the European Parliament elections in June 2024,” European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said at a press conference.
Thus, the European Commission has stated in no uncertain terms that the implementation of the notorious directive will ruin 30 million small businesses in Europe, which will put an end to the prospects of the next European Parliament elections for the European People’s Party (EPP), from which EC President Ursula von der Leyen was elected to the European Parliament.
In fact, the European Commission’s decision was taken just two days after the EPP, the conservatives (Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists) and the patriots (Identity and Democracy Party) openly demanded that the proposal be withdrawn.
“We got the impression that the Commission was following the instructions of three political groups,” concluded Sandro Gozi, a liberal MEP, said.
“Berlaymont (the residence of the European Commission) is increasingly looking like the headquarters of the EPP,” Social Democrat Tiemo Wölken said.
“There are two main games being played with regard to the repeal of the European Environmental Disclosure Directive aimed at combating corporate greenwashing: on the one hand, it risks becoming a point of no return for the very fragile “platform” supporting Ursula von der Leyen, and on the other hand, it undermines the authority of the legislative process and trust between European institutions themselves.
In the European Parliament, socialists and liberals are furious over the “unprecedented” move by the European Commission and the betrayal by the EPP, which “decided to join forces with the far-right” in a crusade against the “Green Agenda,” EUNews reports, noting that against the backdrop of the unexpected decision, clearly pushed through by Ursula von der Leyen, “chaos reigns” in the European Parliament.
Ursula von der Leyen’s position has been significantly weakened. She needs to maintain a functioning majority in the European Parliament, but this has now become problematic. Socialists and liberals, dissatisfied with the rejection of the Green Agenda, are threatening to withdraw their support for the “traitor.”
Pfizer case
They helped protect her during the corruption scandal surrounding the purchase of Pfizer vaccines and now feel betrayed.
In May 2025, the European Court of Justice found Ursula von der Leyen responsible for concealing information about contracts for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021-2023.
The allegations against her were made by The New York Times in 2023, claiming that the head of the European Commission had unjustifiably refused to publish text messages in which she agreed with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on the terms of contracts worth more than €30 billion for the purchase of vaccines for the European Union.
The EU court’s ruling did not determine the extent of von der Leyen’s responsibility, imposing no disciplinary or criminal measures against her, although it could serve as a basis for new lawsuits against the head of the European Commission.
The scandal surrounding Ursula von der Leyen’s clearly corrupt actions has been dragging on since February 2021, when the EU announced its intention to sign a €35 billion agreement with Pfizer for the supply of 900 million doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by 2023 and another 900 million doses later.
On April 28, 2021, when the deal was supposed to be finalised, The New York Times reported that Ursula von der Leyen personally negotiated the deal through a series of text messages and phone calls with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, describing the European Commission president’s behaviour as “a striking combination of political survival and corporate hustle.”
According to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of more than 70 humanitarian organisations, the EU overpaid €31 billion for doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The cost price of these vaccines is only $1.18–2.85. The EU paid an order of magnitude more for them. The mark-up on each injection was more than 794% for Moderna and more than 1,838% for Pfizer.
Pfizergate has blown up into one of the biggest scandals in EU history. After von der Leyen and the Commission refused to hand over text messages not only to journalists but even to the EU Ombudsman and the EU Court of Auditors, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an independent EU body responsible for investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, announced that it had launched an investigation into the procurement process, confirming that it had received “an exceptionally high number of reports and complaints” requesting “an investigation into the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines in the European Union.”
In the end, the socialists and liberals saved Ursula from criminal liability and have since believed that she would promote the green agenda with redoubled vigour in gratitude.
Ursula’s corruption scandals
Von der Leyen was involved in corruption scandals even when she was German defence minister.
In 2018, an investigation by Der Spiegel magazine sparked a scandal known as McKinsey-Gate.
“Federal Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) has been confronted with an unpleasant story involving external management consultants whom she hired for many millions of euros: according to Der Spiegel, the Federal Audit Office (BRH) found in a separate case that the Ministry of Defence had illegally contracted external management consultants for the newly created Cyber Command. Specifically, the initial amount is eight million euros.
The allegations stem from a confidential audit report dated August 7, which Der Spiegel has obtained. In it, the auditors describe how the ministry illegally procured consulting services. “An audit of the ministry, which is investigating internal inconsistencies, has now confirmed these allegations,” the media reported.
The budget for von der Leyen’s army of consultants, led by the American consulting firm McKinsey, was enormous, according to Der Spiegel: “In 2016, contracts worth more than 208 million euros were signed just to reform the chaotic arms procurement system, plus smaller budgets for other projects.”
And this corrupt deal also got away from von der Leyen. But the betrayal of her fellow green madmen could cost von der Leyen her high office and bring her political career to an inglorious end.
“An official from the Socialist Party said that the situation had caused them to question the very basis of their support for von der Leyen,” POLITICO reported.
It can be assumed that progressive MEPs will seek and find another skeleton in the closet of the head of the European Commission, initiating yet another corruption scandal involving her.
Doubts that Ursula’s departure, albeit not radical, from the green agenda was motivated by some altruistic interests are misplaced. But this is unlikely to unite the European Parliament, which is divided into two irreconcilable factions and mired in inter-party squabbles.
THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.
Laurent Révial for Head-Post.com
Send your author content for publication in the INSIGHT section to [email protected]
