\u201cThis was a bad summer for Europe,\u201d said Bas Eickhout, co-chair of the Greens in the Parliament, a different political group from von der Leyen but one that voted her into office. \u201cWhat we clearly want as a message from the president of the Commission is that things need to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barely 10 months into her second period at the helm, von der Leyen is under severe pressure \u2015 from the democratically elected Parliament, from within the broader EU setup, and from global events. Political groups that for decades have been friendly toward center-right Commission presidents are now questioning those allegiances. Surging right-wing forces are demanding tougher policies on issues from migration to the environment, and see the EU as a convenient punching bag. The leaders of the U.S. and Russia have disturbed much that once seemed certain about Europe\u2019s place in the world.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cWe expect clear leadership from the executive,\u201d Val\u00e9rie Hayer, chief of the liberal Renew Europe group, told POLITICO. \u201cEurope cannot afford institutional stagnation or standstill.\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s that apparent lack of leadership that has dismayed politicians from all sides and it\u2019s why they\u2019re ready to pounce on von der Leyen personally. Among members of the Commission and the Parliament, wounds are still fresh from a motion of no-confidence in von der Leyen in July. Groups at the more extreme ends of the political spectrum are already plotting another as soon as October \u2015 an unprecedented show of opposition to a Commission president.<\/strong><\/p>\n High tension and political polarization<\/p>\n While the State of the EU speech is often seen in Brussels as a rather mundane kickoff to the political season \u2015 high on hyperbole and ceremony and low on tangible plans as the Commission president brags about the achievements of the past 12 months and issues big promises for the next \u2015 there\u2019s an undercurrent this year that will add significant frisson.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the Commission is scared,\u201d said a well-positioned Commission official, speaking under condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of internal discussions. \u201cBut for sure there is awareness of the political tensions in Parliament and the discontent of political groups, including within the von der Leyen majority, towards some of the Commission\u2019s actions and policies.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis was a bad summer for Europe,\u201d said Bas Eickhout, co-chair of the Greens in the Parliament, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[95693,1194,2311,30,473,2000,137613,299,5187,1699,6644,3976,806,1197,42,140114,44,11665,22708,809,5111,811,1201,6862,49,1220,41048],"class_list":{"0":"post-406748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-bas-eickhout","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-eu-state-of-the-union","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-union","18":"tag-farmers","19":"tag-governance","20":"tag-industry","21":"tag-investment","22":"tag-jordan-bardella","23":"tag-manon-aubry","24":"tag-marine-le-pen","25":"tag-meps","26":"tag-mercosur","27":"tag-negotiations","28":"tag-parliament","29":"tag-security","30":"tag-trade","31":"tag-trade-agreements","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","34":"tag-valerie-hayer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115166376329269823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406748","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=406748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}