{"id":467055,"date":"2025-10-02T00:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/467055\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T00:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T00:02:12","slug":"von-der-leyen-and-costa-psychodrama-sees-them-struggle-in-copenhagen-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/467055\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen and Costa psychodrama\u00a0sees them struggle in Copenhagen \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

While von der Leyen has made many proposals to boost EU defense, this remains a core part of national governments\u2019 individual powers. The bloc\u2019s biggest countries don\u2019t want the Commission to take away their authority. Smaller countries are more sanguine, particularly those in the East, because they feel more vulnerable to the Russian threat. <\/p>\n

Costa wanted to show that he, too, could play a leadership part, two diplomats said. Up until now he\u2019s played mainly a supporting role, leaving von der Leyen to bask in the spotlight. As a center-left chief presiding over a group of leaders, most of whom are center-right, that\u2019s meant Costa has had to pick his battles. <\/p>\n

Yet, officials were still unclear why the enlargement issue was a hill he wanted to die on, given the low chances of success. There\u2019s still the likelihood he has a plan B, one official with knowledge of EU discussions said.<\/p>\n

Sounds like populism<\/p>\n

Officials rejected criticism that von der Leyen and Costa were pushing for badly conceived proposals. \u201cIt\u2019s just called leadership,\u201d said another EU official, implying that ideas are floated and gradually get pushed and evolve before they become real.<\/p>\n

\"\"The \u201cdrone wall\u201d didn\u2019t muster enough support. \u201cI\u2019m wary,\u201d said French President Emmanuel Macron. | Emil Helms\/Ritzau Scanpix\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The summit showed that Europe\u2019s most powerful national leaders still have the final word. That sometimes can be unsettling for those who operate the bloc\u2019s machinery in Brussels \u2014 particularly when they hear a leader like Germany\u2019s Merz start talking like there\u2019s political capital in criticizing the EU.<\/p>\n

In recent days he has attacked the Commission for an excess of red tape and bureaucracy<\/a>. EU officials and diplomats think that sounds like populism. They also think they know what lies beneath it: He\u2019s telling them to get back in their box.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While von der Leyen has made many proposals to boost EU defense, this remains a core part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11783,473,32,2595,34,6561,1945,2190,13491,12,7965,6565,332,21387,657,1220,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-467055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-antonio-costa","9":"tag-defense","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-drones","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-enlargement","14":"tag-friedrich-merz","15":"tag-hungary","16":"tag-moldova","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-platforms","19":"tag-populism","20":"tag-russia","21":"tag-state-of-the-union","22":"tag-ukraine","23":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","24":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115301643124053033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467055","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=467055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}