{"id":220284,"date":"2025-06-28T03:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/220284\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T03:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:26:10","slug":"ursula-von-der-leyens-confidence-vote-threatens-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/220284\/","title":{"rendered":"Ursula von der Leyen\u2019s confidence vote threatens the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pressure is mounting on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. On Wednesday, a group of Right-wing MEPs announced<\/a> that they had secured enough support to table a no-confidence vote against her over concerns about her leadership style, lack of transparency and growing accusations of bypassing democratic norms within the EU\u2019s institutional framework.<\/p>\n

The initiative, launched by Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea, stems from the ongoing \u201cPfizergate\u201d scandal, which escalated<\/a> in May when the European General Court issued a landmark ruling against the Commission for failing to disclose text messages exchanged between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. These were sent during negotiations in 2021 for the purchase of up to 1.8 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a cost of \u20ac35 billion.<\/p>\n

Piperea\u2019s motion was supported by 74 MEPs from various cross-party groups \u2014 including one from von der Leyen\u2019s own European People\u2019s Party Group \u2014 and the vote is expected to take place next month. While the motion has little chance of succeeding due to the high bar of a two-thirds majority, this still represents a serious political hurdle for von der Leyen \u2014 and a challenge to the entire Brussels system.<\/p>\n

For the first time, the European Parliament will be forced to have a public and official discussion about a scandal that for years has been confined to newspaper reports and courtrooms. \u201cThe initiative is fundamentally about upholding transparency and ensuring a fair and genuine democratic process,\u201d Piperea said<\/a>. He acknowledged that its chances of success are slim, but said it offered a \u201ccrucial opportunity for constructive and substantiated criticism\u201d towards the EU Commission President.<\/p>\n

This is about more than just Pfizergate. Since her re-election in 2024, von der Leyen has been fiercely criticised from various quarters for her authoritarian approach and systematic sidelining of the Parliament. Last month, for example, the Commission proposed<\/a> using an emergency clause in the EU treaty to shut MEPs out of approving a \u20ac150 billion loan scheme to boost joint procurement of weapons by EU countries, known as SAFE.<\/p>\n

Responding to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who threatened<\/a> legal action against the Commission, von der Leyen defended the move, arguing that the emergency clause is \u201cfully justified\u201d as SAFE is \u201can exceptional and temporary response to an urgent and existential challenge\u201d.<\/p>\n

In this sense, Pfizergate symbolises a broader process<\/a> of supranationalisation and centralisation of the bloc\u2019s politics, whereby the Commission has progressively increased its influence over areas of competence which have previously been considered the preserve of national governments \u2014 from financial budgets and health policy to foreign affairs and defence. Piperea\u2019s motion also mentions this alleged \u201cprocedural abuse\u201d. He \u201ccalls on the European Commission to resign due to repeated failures to ensure transparency, persistent disregard for democratic oversight and the rule of law within the Union\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thus, while the motion is largely driven by Right-wing and conservative factions, it exposes growing dissatisfaction across ideological and party lines. Socialists, liberals and even some Greens \u2014 who backed von der Leyen\u2019s re-election \u2014 have become increasingly vocal in their criticism of her leadership style, particularly regarding transparency issues and her withdrawal of a greenwashing law without parliamentary consultation. However, these groups explicitly stated they would not support a \u201cfar-Right\u201d-led motion.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the no-confidence motion will not topple von der Leyen, but its symbolic force is undeniable. Longstanding concerns over the concentration of power within the Commission can no longer be dismissed as fringe or conspiratorial. By compelling a public debate in the European Parliament, the initiative may begin to tear open the institutional fa\u00e7ade of unity and consensus, revealing a growing unease with the EU\u2019s escalating techno-authoritarian regime. Whether or not the motion passes, it signals that the age of unquestioned executive authority in Brussels may be nearing its end \u2014 and that a reckoning over the future of EU governance may be fast approaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pressure is mounting on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. On Wednesday, a group of Right-wing MEPs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,2557,1699,11187,980,4834,86918,285,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-220284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-commission","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-non-classifiu00e9e","14":"tag-optional","15":"tag-pfizer","16":"tag-pfizergate","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114758863071505399","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}