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It’s fair to assume Ursula von der Leyen will be looking forward to her summer break.<\/p>\n
This July, typically a month of low-intensity in Brussels politics, has been nothing short of a whirlwind for the president of the European Commission, with consequential decisions and pivotal moments that could reshape the trajectory of her five-year mandate.<\/p>\n
Nobody expected her second term to be an easy ride, certainly not after the electoral victory of Donald Trump, a man whose beliefs are directly at odds with the bloc’s defence of predictable rules, open markets and international cooperation.<\/p>\n
Still, the events of the last five weeks, a powerful blend of domestic bickering, global turmoil and personal scrutiny, crack the president’s tightly controlled image and leave her vulnerable to a sort of stinging criticism she had previously avoided.<\/p>\n
Here’s how von der Leyen’s summer got crueller and bleaker.<\/p>\n
First, the motion<\/p>\n
Von der Leyen never enjoyed hugely harmonious relations with the European Parliament. MEPs have routinely complained about the president’s well-known preference for engaging with member states, the real holders of political power, and her perceived tendency to treat the hemicycle as a second-rate legislator.<\/p>\n
Tensions and discontent had been simmering for months when a hard-right lawmaker, Romania’s Gheorghe Piperea, drafted a motion of censure against the European Commission and managed to secure the necessary 72 signatures to put it to a vote.<\/p>\n
Piperea’s motion, which combined the Pfizergate scandal<\/strong><\/a> with conspiracies about electoral interference, never had a realistic chance of succeeding. The far-fetched move was ultimately rejected<\/strong><\/a> with 360 votes against and 175 in favour.<\/p>\n But the arithmetic was not the point.<\/p>\n The motion put von der Leyen in a rare position of defiance. The Commission chief was forced<\/strong><\/a> to address, one by one, the accusations that Piperea had levelled against her, rejecting them all as “false claims” and “sinister plots”.<\/p>\n Socialists, liberals and greens, all of whom backed her re-election last year, seized the moment to air their pent-up frustration and run through a shopping list of recriminations, raising serious questions about the viability of the centrist coalition.<\/p>\n “I will always be ready to debate any issue that this house wants, with facts and with arguments,” she said, offering an olive branch for “unity”.<\/p>\n The saga polarised the Parliament and weakened von der Leyen. Crucially, it proved how relatively easy it is for MEPs to file a motion of censure at any point. Manon Aubry, the co-leader of The Left, has begun<\/strong><\/a> collecting signatures for a fresh attempt. <\/p>\n Then, the budget<\/p>\n Bruised from the motion of censure, von der Leyen shifted gears to focus on what was expected to be her biggest announcement of the year: the Commission’s long-awaited proposal for the bloc’s next seven-year budget (2028-2034).<\/p>\n It was the perfect opportunity for von der Leyen to showcase her political gravitas, reframe the conversation and turn a page on the acrimonious vote. <\/p>\n As it happened, the proposal was marred by internal fights over the total size of the budget, the restructuring of programmes and the financial allocation for each priority.<\/p>\n Her novel idea to merge agricultural and cohesion funds into a single envelope<\/strong><\/a> leaked in advance and prompted immediate criticism from the powerful farming lobby. Her cabinet’s penchant for secrecy<\/strong><\/a> left other Commissioners in a scramble to figure out how much money they would have in future for their portfolios.<\/p>\n By the time von der Leyen unveiled the \u20ac2 trillion budget<\/strong><\/a>, the largest ever put forward, attention was split between her ground-breaking blueprint and the behind-the-scenes drama, which stretched through the night until the final meeting.<\/p>\n During the press conference, the president was asked the awkward question on whether she had treated her 26 Commissioners with fairness and respect.<\/p>\n “Not everyone was satisfied,” she said, explaining the one-by-one consultations.<\/p>\n “There’s strong support. The collegial decision is taken. And now we have to fight to bring this budget further in the next two years.”<\/p>\n Later, the summit<\/p>\n “Unsustainable.”<\/p>\n That is how Commission officials had described the state of EU-China relations in anticipation of a high-stakes bilateral summit in Beijing. <\/p>\n China’s generous use of state subsidies to boost domestic production despite lacking the internal demand to absorb it has provoked the fury of Brussels<\/strong><\/a>, which fears the intense race-to-the-bottom could decimate European industry. Beijing’s decision to curb exports of critical raw materials, hinder market access for foreign firms and continue its “no-limits partnership” with Moscow added to the piled-up tensions.<\/p>\n Despite the urgent need for tangible change, Ursula von der Leyen left the summit with little to show<\/strong><\/a>. There was a new commitment to address bottlenecks in the supply of rare earths and a joint statement on climate action. Beyond that, no progress was achieved, and the main points of friction were left conspicuously unaddressed. <\/p>\n “We have reached a clear inflection point,” von der Leyen told reporters.<\/p>\n “As we said to the Chinese leadership, for trade to remain mutually beneficial, it must become more balanced. Europe welcomes competition. But it must be fair.”<\/p>\n The underwhelming summit suggests EU-China relations will remain confrontational for the foreseeable future, trapping von der Leyen between two perilous avenues: retaliate and risk facing Beijing’s wrath or offer concessions that might not be reciprocated.<\/p>\n “With its rare earth controls, China has given Europe a glimpse of the havoc it can wreak if the trade battle gets hot,” Noah Barkin, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, wrote in his latest newsletter.<\/p>\n “But if Europe fails to push back forcefully, throwing all the defensive trade tools it has at China, the long-term damage to its industrial base is likely to be profound.”<\/p>\n And finally, the deal<\/p>\n Ursula von der Leyen’s admiration for the transatlantic alliance faced its most gruelling test on 2 April 2025, when Donald Trump unveiled his contentious “reciprocal” tariffs to single-handedly redesign the economic order built at the end of World War II.<\/p>\n That fateful day triggered frantic negotiations to spare the export-oriented bloc from Trump’s sweeping duties. His ultimatum to apply an across-the-board 30% rate<\/strong><\/a>, made in a letter addressed to von der Leyen, caused palpable panic across Brussels.<\/p>\n With the deadline of 1 August looming ever closer, the Commission chief flew to Scotland and met Trump in a last-ditch attempt to seal a deal of sorts.<\/p>\n What emerged from those talks was an agreement<\/strong><\/a> to apply a 15% tariff on the majority of EU products and a 0% tariff on the majority of US products. Additionally, the bloc made tentative pledges to spend an astonishing $750 billion on American energy and invest $600 billion in the American market by the end of Trump’s mandate.<\/p>\n