Ursula von der Leyen is a political professional, as she proved once again on Thursday. The old and new Commission President has spent weeks wooing the MEPs, who have now given her a comfortable majority. She has managed to bring together all the concerns, wishes and sensitivities into a mosaic. Unlike in 2019, she relied almost exclusively on the pro-European center groups, including the Greens, for her re-election. Von der Leyen did well to also court the Ecological Party – without their votes, she might have failed.
After a short summer break, von der Leyen will set about putting together her new commission. Here, too, she will need a sure instinct: In Parliament, the CDU politician is dependent on the second-largest parliamentary group, the Social Democrats, but they have lost a lot of influence in the Council and will therefore only be represented by a few Commissioners in the new College. To balance this out, she could make the Social Democratic lead candidate Nicolas Schmit a strong Vice-President, but she would need the approval of Luxembourg’s Christian Democratic Prime Minister.
Von der Leyen must also consider whether she will make a new attempt to involve Giorgia Meloni more closely in her commission via a weighty portfolio. However, Italy’s right-wing head of government does not seem to know exactly what she wants.
Von der Leyen’s second term of office is also likely to be a voyage in stormy seas. There is political chaos in Paris, Donald Trump could take power again in the USA in November and the troublemaker Viktor Orbán will continue to use the stage offered to him by the Council Presidency in the coming months. Standing up to the growing nationalist centrifugal forces under such conditions is a Herculean task, even for a political professional like von der Leyen.
Ursula von der Leyen has been elected for a second term as Commission President with the votes of the pro-European center groups in the European Parliament. She received 401 votes in a secret ballot – 41 votes more than necessary for an absolute majority of 360 seats. 284 MEPs voted no, and 22 ballots were invalid or not completed.
The CDU politician was able to rely on the majority of votes from the informal alliance of the EPP, Social Democrats, and Liberals, who together make up 401 MEPs. She is likely to have missed out on around 40 votes in her own camp but received the majority of votes from the Greens group with its 53 seats, although they are not part of the informal coalition. The far-right factions voted largely unanimously against the CDU politician. Without the votes of the Greens, she would therefore probably not have been elected.
Von der Leyen was elected “with a strong mandate from the democratic center of the European Parliament”, said Minister of State for Europe Anna Lührmann (Greens) to Table.Briefings. The Greens’ support for a second term of office was “important and right”. Von der Leyen had made a clear commitment to the Green Deal in her application and pledged to work for EU reforms, the rule of law, and a Clean Industry Deal, said the Green politician.
Von der Leyen repeatedly ruled out cooperation with “non-democratic forces” in her speech. This statement may have contributed to the fact that she probably only received a few votes from the national-conservative EKR parliamentary group. The Greens and Socialists do not consider the ECR to be a democratic force. They are warning the EPP against making common cause with the ECR on legislation. “We must stop the EPP from making dirty deals with the far right”, said the S&D Group. The EPP was unimpressed: There is no group pressure in the European Parliament, it said. Whether and which majorities a report receives will be determined in the legislative process.
Almost all of the 188 members of the Christian Democratic parliamentary group are likely to have voted for their lead candidate in the election campaign. In the parliamentary group meeting following her speech in plenary, there was a consensus that von der Leyen’s speech and guidelines represented a course correction compared to her first mandate as the head of the Commission. The tone and political content were now right, it was said approvingly.
All political EPP demands are reflected. The group leadership listed 37 EPP demands that would have been reflected in von der Leyen’s guidelines. How many no votes there were from the EPP group is a matter of speculation: the six-member French delegation led by François-Xavier Bellamy and four Slovenian MEPs had previously expressed criticism. One of the four Slovenians even posted his completed ballot paper and ID card on X. Bellamy subsequently stated on X that his delegation had rejected von der Leyen. At the EPP group meeting, however, he had campaigned for a second term in office, as several participants reported.
In her speech and her political guidelines, von der Leyen addressed many of the points that the four centrist groups had expected from her. Among other things, she promised the Social Democrats a commissioner for housing construction and clearly distanced herself from the far-right forces. This smoothed the waters, said a leading Social Democrat, and the parliamentary group meeting after the speech was accordingly calm, according to participants.
At the meeting, only the Irish S&D delegate announced that he would not support von der Leyen. Two delegates from the French-speaking part of Belgium declared their intention to abstain. The large Italian PD delegation, on the other hand, had signaled its approval, albeit with reservations. One experienced MEP estimates that around 85% of S&D MEPs voted in favor of von der Leyen.
The situation was similar among the Liberals: only the Irish MEPs – and the FDP delegation – spoke out openly against von der Leyen. Its chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann criticized von der Leyen’s program as “largely a ‘business as usual’”. She also said that she had not ruled out new European debt in her speech and, on the contrary, wanted to “inflate the budget without saying where the money should come from”. On the subject of the rule of law, she found fine words but proposed nothing concrete.
The five FDP MEPs had previously called on von der Leyen to take a clear position on these and other issues such as the phase-out of combustion engines. According to the delegation, it was “a special kind of disrespect” that she had not seen fit to respond. It was only when von der Leyen’s own “no” was made public that her team frantically tried to contact Strack-Zimmermann.
The Greens claim to be president-makers. There was a test vote in the parliamentary group meeting before the vote in plenary. Out of 53 MEPs, 44 voted in favor of von der Leyen. The nine votes against came from MEPs from France, Italy, and Spain. However, there are indications that some of them subsequently voted for von der Leyen in the secret ballot in plenary.
The decisive factor was that the climate target for 2040 (minus 90 percent) was included in the guidelines. The fact that the Greens are not part of the informal coalition, contrary to their repeatedly expressed wishes, did not detract from the high level of approval. However, it was not von der Leyen who was responsible for this, but EPP leader Manfred Weber, according to the parliamentary group. Weber was still in election campaign mode. However, when it came to the distribution of committee posts from the “cordon sanitaire” and the election of vice-presidents, it was clear that the agreements with the parties on the platform were holding.
Only a few of the 78 ECR MEPs are likely to have voted for von der Leyen: Three MEPs from the Flemish NVA and two out of three from the Czech ODS. Alexandr Vondra, also ODS, said on X that he did not like von der Leyen’s speech, but did not say how he had voted by secret ballot.
According to group leader Nicolas Procaccini, the 24 Italian Fratelli MEPs voted against von der Leyen. There had been speculation that ECR leader Giorgia Meloni would recommend von der Leyen’s election to the Italian Fratelli delegation. Group leader Procaccini made it clear, however, that the group wants to have a say in legislation: “The majority in the new European Parliament is centrist-right of center. We will notice this in the coming years.”
In her first candidacy speech in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen only touched on economic policy in passing, but yesterday was a different story: “Our top priorities are prosperity and competitiveness”, she told the European Parliament. The need for this arises from geopolitical tensions – otherwise, there is a risk of dependence on unfriendly actors.
Many industry representatives accuse the CDU politician of having criminally neglected the interests of companies over the past five years as Commission President. Like VDMA Managing Director Thilo Brodtmann, they complain of “unspeakable detailed regulations and excessive bureaucracy”, particularly in the context of sustainability legislation. Party colleagues and representatives of the Liberals had therefore urged von der Leyen to address these concerns.
And von der Leyen did this in her speech and her political guidelines: “We need less reporting, less bureaucracy and more trust, better enforcement and faster approvals”, she said. A new Vice-President for Implementation, Simplification, and Interinstitutional Relations is to oversee implementation in the new Commission and report to Parliament once a year on progress. Von der Leyen promised that this Vice-President would subject the entire EU acquis to a stress test and then submit proposals to simplify the legislation. In addition, legislative initiatives are to undergo separate SME and competitiveness checks before the Commission submits them.
Von der Leyen also wants to fulfill a long-standing demand from the German business community and expand the European definition of SMEs to include a new category for small mid-cap companies. The announced measures will “hopefully initiate the long overdue cultural change towards better legislation”, said Freya Lemcke, Head of the DIHK Representation to the EU. VDMA representative Brodtmann described the concrete ideas as “promising”.
CDU MEP Andreas Schwab praised the fact that von der Leyen had spoken out in favor of the principle of trust-based regulation, which spares companies from excessive obligations to provide evidence. However, he also warned: “Radical simplification naturally requires a corresponding political majority, which is something we will have to fight for.”
Von der Leyen is also committed to the goals of the Green Deal, an “implementation of the existing legal framework” and a climate target of 90% CO2 reduction by 2040. As expected, she wants to develop the Green Deal into a Clean Industrial Deal – as a 100-day program. A legal act to accelerate the decarbonization of industry is intended to facilitate investments, create lead markets for clean technologies, and simplify tenders and approvals.
There will even be a separate package for the chemical industry. The new attempt to reform REACH is intended to simplify the chemicals regulation and the Commission should also finally create clarity for “perpetual chemicals” (PFAS).
The recipes from its guidelines for affordable energy are well-known: The expansion of clean energy, completion of the internal market, and an extension of the joint procurement of natural gas to hydrogen – and critical raw materials. The Commission also wants to simplify access to the latter with a new legal act for the circular economy and create a genuine internal market for waste.
The end of the combustion engine is only mentioned in the guidelines, not in the speech in plenary. One sentence deals with the topic, which has attracted a lot of attention, especially in Germany: A “technology-neutral approach is needed, in which e-fuels will play a role by specifically amending the regulations as part of the planned review”.
This means that the Commission will review the CO2 fleet legislation. According to the law, this is scheduled for 2026. There is no indication that the review will be brought forward by a year, as has been speculated. In the course of the review, the fleet limit value for new vehicles is to be reduced to zero grams of CO2 per kilometer driven in 2035.
The change is that e-fuels are recognized as a climate-neutral fuel for achieving the CO2 fleet target – in the legal text itself and not, as previously, in a non-binding recital. New vehicles with combustion engines that run on climate-neutral e-fuels could then also be registered beyond 2035.
Jens Gieseke (CDU), coordinator on the Environment Committee, welcomed von der Leyen’s words: “The announcement is an important and clear signal for technological openness. It is right that this mistake of the ban on combustion engines is now being rectified.” However, it is now important to implement the promise as quickly as possible: “We should not wait until the planned review in 2026.”
Timo Wölken (SPD), who would like to become coordinator of the Environment Committee again, points out: “There is a risk that the EPP will attack the phase-out of combustion engines with the right.” Conceivable demands could include reducing CO₂ emissions by 90% rather than 100% in 2035 or allowing the use of biofuels.
The current and future Commission President also wants to focus investments fully on competitiveness. “European start-ups should not have to look to the USA or Asia to finance their expansion”, writes von der Leyen in her guidelines. She therefore proposes a savings and investment union for banks and capital markets, which Enrico Letta also proposed in his single market report.
Essentially, this concerns the Capital Markets Union project, which has been discussed in Brussels for ten years. In recent months, EU heads of government and individual finance ministers have tried to move the project forward, but the concrete harmonization proposals have not made much headway due to national interests.
Von der Leyen remains vague on the details of the Capital Markets Union, but she wants to “propose a new EU-wide legal status to help innovative companies grow”. Companies with this EU-wide legal status would benefit from a 28th regime that “allows companies to use a simpler, harmonized set of rules in certain areas”.
The idea of the 28th regime is not new either. The fact that the idea is being brought up again is also to be understood against the background of the technically complex, politically difficult and so far largely unsuccessful harmonization efforts in tax, insolvency, and company law. The question is whether the ministers in the EU Council have an interest in a European form of company that is more attractive than their respective national regimes.
Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the think tank Centre for European Reform (CER), welcomes von der Leyen’s announcement of the 28th regime. It would help young EU companies “to become active more quickly in several countries and benefit from a larger market size – which is particularly important in the technology and digital services sectors”, he told Table.Briefings. It would also “make it easier for companies to access capital by making investment conditions more transparent and uniform for international and pan-European investors”.
Private capital alone will not be able to provide the necessary investment. Von der Leyen has therefore announced a “European Competitiveness Fund”, which the EU will use to promote strategic technologies. The fund’s resources are intended to minimize risks for private investors through public guarantees and thus create a leverage effect. However, the more the Commission relies on such leverage effects, the more difficult it will be to assess the actual effect of the fund.
The competitiveness fund that von der Leyen wants to present in 2025 as part of the proposal for the next multiannual financial framework from 2028 is reminiscent of the sovereignty fund that von der Leyen announced in 2022. She had to drop the idea again due to national resistance – particularly from Germany. Nevertheless, von der Leyen is calling for an “increased” budget for the next budget period from 2028 to 2034. However, she does not specify how high the new budget should be.
Von der Leyen’s program can also be seen as a cautious restructuring of the European economic model. Economic policy should be geared more towards the domestic market. Domestic industry is also to be given greater preference in public procurement.
“I will propose a revision of the directive on the award of public contracts. This will make it possible to give preference to European products when awarding public contracts in certain strategic sectors”, writes von der Leyen in her program. This is intended to put the procurement market, which accounts for 14 percent of European GDP, more at the service of the European economy – a demand that France in particular has put forward to date.
Trade policy is also about more than just promoting foreign trade. The heavily export-oriented German Engineering Federation VDMA expressed concern about von der Leyen’s “very inward-looking” economic policy approach. “The opening of markets or even concrete plans to conclude ongoing negotiations and implement free trade agreements were missing from her speech”, said Managing Director Brodtmann.
Her new “foreign trade policy for today’s realities” is about economic security, trade, and investment in partnerships. Instead of major new free trade agreements, von der Leyen talks about “Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships”, in which market opening in third countries is combined with access to critical raw materials and European investment in the partner countries.
Neil Makaroff from the think tank Strategic Perspectives welcomes this development as an “opportunity to forge win-win partnerships with third countries and for decarbonization”. On one important condition, which hovers as a question over von der Leyen’s entire economic agenda: “It remains to be seen whether the Europeans will be able to put the resources behind this new industrial situation”, Makaroff told Table.Briefings.
Ursula von der Leyen’s guidelines for the 2024-2029 electoral term build on the objectives of the previous mandate in the area of digital and innovation. However, they place a different focus on the implementation and enforcement of existing laws in the new mandate. “We will now significantly intensify our enforcement in the coming mandate period“, the guidelines state. More investment in new technologies is also planned.
The protection of democracy and the fight against disinformation remain key issues. The new guidelines place a clear focus on the role of large technology companies. “Technology giants must take responsibility for their enormous systemic power in our society and economy”, they demand.
The chapter on digital policy is entitled “Increasing productivity through the spread of digital technologies“. It begins with the statement that Europe’s competitiveness is “impaired by its lower productivity compared to its direct global competitors”. The reason for this is the insufficient spread of digital technologies. This should change.
Specifically, von der Leyen wants to tackle the following topics in the new mandate to create a genuine digital single market:
In contrast, the Digital Networks Act proposed by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton at the end of the expired mandate is hardly reflected in the guidelines. Breton had presented a White Paper on the subject, with the plan that the next Commission would turn it into a law to implement the Digital Single Market. The envisaged measures – such as a contribution to network costs by the major technology companies – are not included.
In order to achieve competitiveness, von der Leyen also wants to usher in “a new age of inventiveness” and place “research and innovation, science and technology at the heart of our economy”. To this end, research spending is to increase and focus more on “strategic priorities, ground-breaking basic research, and disruptive innovation as well as scientific excellence”. In addition, the European Innovation Council is to complement the European Research Council.
Von der Leyen wants Europe to “make the most of the biotechnology revolution” and announced that she would propose a new European biotech act in 2025. This will be part of a broader strategy for European life sciences.
To protect children and young people in the digital space, von der Leyen is planning an EU-wide study to understand the impact of social media on the well-being of children and young people. She is also declaring war on dangerous practices on online platforms – such as endless scrolling, automatic playback, and constant push notifications. An action plan to combat cyberbullying is also on the agenda to address the increasing abuse on the internet.
As in her speech, von der Leyen also emphasizes in the guidelines how central a free and independent press is to democracy and the rule of law. In the guidelines, she commits to implementing the European Media Freedom Act in order to protect independent media and journalists.
Von der Leyen also sees the prevention of disinformation and foreign manipulation as crucial for the protection of democracy. To this end, she is proposing a new European protective shield for democracy. “Following the example of the French authority Viginum or the Swedish Office for National Psychological Defense, we will work to counter foreign manipulation of information and influence via the Internet.” This includes
Looking at the quantity alone, it is noticeable that digital topics take up significantly less space in the new guidelines than in 2019. Back then, a total of around seven pages (out of 24 pages) were explicitly dedicated to digital and innovation topics, which accounted for around 29% of the document. In the current document, there are around five pages (out of 35), which corresponds to only around 14 percent of the document.
While the Members of the European Parliament confirmed Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission yesterday, the French MEPs re-elected Yaël Braun-Pivet, the current President of the National Assembly, to the office.
This is a stage victory for President Emmanuel Macron, who has been heavily criticized for his decision to dissolve parliament just one hour after the results of the European elections. All eyes are now on the Élysée Palace: how will the president react to the election result?
Rarely has the election of the presidency of the National Assembly been so intensively commented on and followed by national and international media. This is because it is the first step on the way to forming a government, which is still a long time coming. “It is a signal, but certainly not a solution on the way to the imminent appointment of a government“, commented a French parliamentary source.
This delay is good for Emmanuel Macron. Because the longer this government is delayed, the more the political momentum loses the selfsame in favor of the left. The icing on the cake: The Olympic Games begin in France in a week’s time. A perfect opportunity for Emmanuel Macron to forget the current political confusion.
The struggles of the left within the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) are benefiting the president: The Socialists and La France Insoumise are fighting so fiercely over who should be the candidate for the post of prime minister that they have halted consultations. And this is even though time is running out for the left-wing camp.
Frustration is now also growing in civil society. In an article for “Le Monde”, a broad collective of trade unions, associations, artists and intellectuals called on the left-wing forces to “finally” put an end to the party divisions. “In the event of failure, the disillusionment of voters would be immense”, warn the signatories. Sophie Binet, General Secretary of the CGT trade union, which is close to the Communist Party, said: “Don’t disappoint us before you have even governed.”
So far, three of the four parties in the NRP continue to support the candidacy of economist and climate diplomat Laurence Tubiana, who played a key role in the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. The France Insoumise party continues to reject her candidacy, as it considers Tubiana to be too close to the positions of the Macron camp.
Tubiana is not impressed by this, saying she is “ready” to become prime minister. “I’m not asking for anything, but it’s a time for commitment, and that suits me”, she said. “The Nouveau Front Populaire didn’t win an absolute majority”, but it has “achieved a success”. For Tubiana, the NFP program offers an answer to the “social and ecological emergency in France”.
This policy must ensure “tax justice”, strive to “resume the social dialog on wages” and put the pension reform to the test: “You have to repeal the reform, freeze it, anything you want, but you don’t apply it”, says Tubiana. She also wants to reverse Macron’s tougher immigration law.
This stance is clearly difficult to reconcile with Macron’s positions. This makes it all the more important for his camp to play for time. But now the French Senate is intervening. Concerned about the political crisis, the senators briefly resumed their work and promised to be a “force for balance”. Conservative Senator Claude Malhuret said that for the first time France was “at an impasse”.
Ursula von der Leyen is a political professional, as she proved once again on Thursday. The old and new Commission President has spent weeks wooing the MEPs, who have now given her a comfortable majority. She has managed to bring together all the concerns, wishes and sensitivities into a mosaic. Unlike in 2019, she relied almost exclusively on the pro-European center groups, including the Greens, for her re-election. Von der Leyen did well to also court the Ecological Party – without their votes, she might have failed.
After a short summer break, von der Leyen will set about putting together her new commission. Here, too, she will need a sure instinct: In Parliament, the CDU politician is dependent on the second-largest parliamentary group, the Social Democrats, but they have lost a lot of influence in the Council and will therefore only be represented by a few Commissioners in the new College. To balance this out, she could make the Social Democratic lead candidate Nicolas Schmit a strong Vice-President, but she would need the approval of Luxembourg’s Christian Democratic Prime Minister.
Von der Leyen must also consider whether she will make a new attempt to involve Giorgia Meloni more closely in her commission via a weighty portfolio. However, Italy’s right-wing head of government does not seem to know exactly what she wants.
Von der Leyen’s second term of office is also likely to be a voyage in stormy seas. There is political chaos in Paris, Donald Trump could take power again in the USA in November and the troublemaker Viktor Orbán will continue to use the stage offered to him by the Council Presidency in the coming months. Standing up to the growing nationalist centrifugal forces under such conditions is a Herculean task, even for a political professional like von der Leyen.
Ursula von der Leyen has been elected for a second term as Commission President with the votes of the pro-European center groups in the European Parliament. She received 401 votes in a secret ballot – 41 votes more than necessary for an absolute majority of 360 seats. 284 MEPs voted no, and 22 ballots were invalid or not completed.
The CDU politician was able to rely on the majority of votes from the informal alliance of the EPP, Social Democrats, and Liberals, who together make up 401 MEPs. She is likely to have missed out on around 40 votes in her own camp but received the majority of votes from the Greens group with its 53 seats, although they are not part of the informal coalition. The far-right factions voted largely unanimously against the CDU politician. Without the votes of the Greens, she would therefore probably not have been elected.
Von der Leyen was elected “with a strong mandate from the democratic center of the European Parliament”, said Minister of State for Europe Anna Lührmann (Greens) to Table.Briefings. The Greens’ support for a second term of office was “important and right”. Von der Leyen had made a clear commitment to the Green Deal in her application and pledged to work for EU reforms, the rule of law, and a Clean Industry Deal, said the Green politician.
Von der Leyen repeatedly ruled out cooperation with “non-democratic forces” in her speech. This statement may have contributed to the fact that she probably only received a few votes from the national-conservative EKR parliamentary group. The Greens and Socialists do not consider the ECR to be a democratic force. They are warning the EPP against making common cause with the ECR on legislation. “We must stop the EPP from making dirty deals with the far right”, said the S&D Group. The EPP was unimpressed: There is no group pressure in the European Parliament, it said. Whether and which majorities a report receives will be determined in the legislative process.
Almost all of the 188 members of the Christian Democratic parliamentary group are likely to have voted for their lead candidate in the election campaign. In the parliamentary group meeting following her speech in plenary, there was a consensus that von der Leyen’s speech and guidelines represented a course correction compared to her first mandate as the head of the Commission. The tone and political content were now right, it was said approvingly.
All political EPP demands are reflected. The group leadership listed 37 EPP demands that would have been reflected in von der Leyen’s guidelines. How many no votes there were from the EPP group is a matter of speculation: the six-member French delegation led by François-Xavier Bellamy and four Slovenian MEPs had previously expressed criticism. One of the four Slovenians even posted his completed ballot paper and ID card on X. Bellamy subsequently stated on X that his delegation had rejected von der Leyen. At the EPP group meeting, however, he had campaigned for a second term in office, as several participants reported.
In her speech and her political guidelines, von der Leyen addressed many of the points that the four centrist groups had expected from her. Among other things, she promised the Social Democrats a commissioner for housing construction and clearly distanced herself from the far-right forces. This smoothed the waters, said a leading Social Democrat, and the parliamentary group meeting after the speech was accordingly calm, according to participants.
At the meeting, only the Irish S&D delegate announced that he would not support von der Leyen. Two delegates from the French-speaking part of Belgium declared their intention to abstain. The large Italian PD delegation, on the other hand, had signaled its approval, albeit with reservations. One experienced MEP estimates that around 85% of S&D MEPs voted in favor of von der Leyen.
The situation was similar among the Liberals: only the Irish MEPs – and the FDP delegation – spoke out openly against von der Leyen. Its chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann criticized von der Leyen’s program as “largely a ‘business as usual’”. She also said that she had not ruled out new European debt in her speech and, on the contrary, wanted to “inflate the budget without saying where the money should come from”. On the subject of the rule of law, she found fine words but proposed nothing concrete.
The five FDP MEPs had previously called on von der Leyen to take a clear position on these and other issues such as the phase-out of combustion engines. According to the delegation, it was “a special kind of disrespect” that she had not seen fit to respond. It was only when von der Leyen’s own “no” was made public that her team frantically tried to contact Strack-Zimmermann.
The Greens claim to be president-makers. There was a test vote in the parliamentary group meeting before the vote in plenary. Out of 53 MEPs, 44 voted in favor of von der Leyen. The nine votes against came from MEPs from France, Italy, and Spain. However, there are indications that some of them subsequently voted for von der Leyen in the secret ballot in plenary.
The decisive factor was that the climate target for 2040 (minus 90 percent) was included in the guidelines. The fact that the Greens are not part of the informal coalition, contrary to their repeatedly expressed wishes, did not detract from the high level of approval. However, it was not von der Leyen who was responsible for this, but EPP leader Manfred Weber, according to the parliamentary group. Weber was still in election campaign mode. However, when it came to the distribution of committee posts from the “cordon sanitaire” and the election of vice-presidents, it was clear that the agreements with the parties on the platform were holding.
Only a few of the 78 ECR MEPs are likely to have voted for von der Leyen: Three MEPs from the Flemish NVA and two out of three from the Czech ODS. Alexandr Vondra, also ODS, said on X that he did not like von der Leyen’s speech, but did not say how he had voted by secret ballot.
According to group leader Nicolas Procaccini, the 24 Italian Fratelli MEPs voted against von der Leyen. There had been speculation that ECR leader Giorgia Meloni would recommend von der Leyen’s election to the Italian Fratelli delegation. Group leader Procaccini made it clear, however, that the group wants to have a say in legislation: “The majority in the new European Parliament is centrist-right of center. We will notice this in the coming years.”
In her first candidacy speech in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen only touched on economic policy in passing, but yesterday was a different story: “Our top priorities are prosperity and competitiveness”, she told the European Parliament. The need for this arises from geopolitical tensions – otherwise, there is a risk of dependence on unfriendly actors.
Many industry representatives accuse the CDU politician of having criminally neglected the interests of companies over the past five years as Commission President. Like VDMA Managing Director Thilo Brodtmann, they complain of “unspeakable detailed regulations and excessive bureaucracy”, particularly in the context of sustainability legislation. Party colleagues and representatives of the Liberals had therefore urged von der Leyen to address these concerns.
And von der Leyen did this in her speech and her political guidelines: “We need less reporting, less bureaucracy and more trust, better enforcement and faster approvals”, she said. A new Vice-President for Implementation, Simplification, and Interinstitutional Relations is to oversee implementation in the new Commission and report to Parliament once a year on progress. Von der Leyen promised that this Vice-President would subject the entire EU acquis to a stress test and then submit proposals to simplify the legislation. In addition, legislative initiatives are to undergo separate SME and competitiveness checks before the Commission submits them.
Von der Leyen also wants to fulfill a long-standing demand from the German business community and expand the European definition of SMEs to include a new category for small mid-cap companies. The announced measures will “hopefully initiate the long overdue cultural change towards better legislation”, said Freya Lemcke, Head of the DIHK Representation to the EU. VDMA representative Brodtmann described the concrete ideas as “promising”.
CDU MEP Andreas Schwab praised the fact that von der Leyen had spoken out in favor of the principle of trust-based regulation, which spares companies from excessive obligations to provide evidence. However, he also warned: “Radical simplification naturally requires a corresponding political majority, which is something we will have to fight for.”
Von der Leyen is also committed to the goals of the Green Deal, an “implementation of the existing legal framework” and a climate target of 90% CO2 reduction by 2040. As expected, she wants to develop the Green Deal into a Clean Industrial Deal – as a 100-day program. A legal act to accelerate the decarbonization of industry is intended to facilitate investments, create lead markets for clean technologies, and simplify tenders and approvals.
There will even be a separate package for the chemical industry. The new attempt to reform REACH is intended to simplify the chemicals regulation and the Commission should also finally create clarity for “perpetual chemicals” (PFAS).
The recipes from its guidelines for affordable energy are well-known: The expansion of clean energy, completion of the internal market, and an extension of the joint procurement of natural gas to hydrogen – and critical raw materials. The Commission also wants to simplify access to the latter with a new legal act for the circular economy and create a genuine internal market for waste.
The end of the combustion engine is only mentioned in the guidelines, not in the speech in plenary. One sentence deals with the topic, which has attracted a lot of attention, especially in Germany: A “technology-neutral approach is needed, in which e-fuels will play a role by specifically amending the regulations as part of the planned review”.
This means that the Commission will review the CO2 fleet legislation. According to the law, this is scheduled for 2026. There is no indication that the review will be brought forward by a year, as has been speculated. In the course of the review, the fleet limit value for new vehicles is to be reduced to zero grams of CO2 per kilometer driven in 2035.
The change is that e-fuels are recognized as a climate-neutral fuel for achieving the CO2 fleet target – in the legal text itself and not, as previously, in a non-binding recital. New vehicles with combustion engines that run on climate-neutral e-fuels could then also be registered beyond 2035.
Jens Gieseke (CDU), coordinator on the Environment Committee, welcomed von der Leyen’s words: “The announcement is an important and clear signal for technological openness. It is right that this mistake of the ban on combustion engines is now being rectified.” However, it is now important to implement the promise as quickly as possible: “We should not wait until the planned review in 2026.”
Timo Wölken (SPD), who would like to become coordinator of the Environment Committee again, points out: “There is a risk that the EPP will attack the phase-out of combustion engines with the right.” Conceivable demands could include reducing CO₂ emissions by 90% rather than 100% in 2035 or allowing the use of biofuels.
The current and future Commission President also wants to focus investments fully on competitiveness. “European start-ups should not have to look to the USA or Asia to finance their expansion”, writes von der Leyen in her guidelines. She therefore proposes a savings and investment union for banks and capital markets, which Enrico Letta also proposed in his single market report.
Essentially, this concerns the Capital Markets Union project, which has been discussed in Brussels for ten years. In recent months, EU heads of government and individual finance ministers have tried to move the project forward, but the concrete harmonization proposals have not made much headway due to national interests.
Von der Leyen remains vague on the details of the Capital Markets Union, but she wants to “propose a new EU-wide legal status to help innovative companies grow”. Companies with this EU-wide legal status would benefit from a 28th regime that “allows companies to use a simpler, harmonized set of rules in certain areas”.
The idea of the 28th regime is not new either. The fact that the idea is being brought up again is also to be understood against the background of the technically complex, politically difficult and so far largely unsuccessful harmonization efforts in tax, insolvency, and company law. The question is whether the ministers in the EU Council have an interest in a European form of company that is more attractive than their respective national regimes.
Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the think tank Centre for European Reform (CER), welcomes von der Leyen’s announcement of the 28th regime. It would help young EU companies “to become active more quickly in several countries and benefit from a larger market size – which is particularly important in the technology and digital services sectors”, he told Table.Briefings. It would also “make it easier for companies to access capital by making investment conditions more transparent and uniform for international and pan-European investors”.
Private capital alone will not be able to provide the necessary investment. Von der Leyen has therefore announced a “European Competitiveness Fund”, which the EU will use to promote strategic technologies. The fund’s resources are intended to minimize risks for private investors through public guarantees and thus create a leverage effect. However, the more the Commission relies on such leverage effects, the more difficult it will be to assess the actual effect of the fund.
The competitiveness fund that von der Leyen wants to present in 2025 as part of the proposal for the next multiannual financial framework from 2028 is reminiscent of the sovereignty fund that von der Leyen announced in 2022. She had to drop the idea again due to national resistance – particularly from Germany. Nevertheless, von der Leyen is calling for an “increased” budget for the next budget period from 2028 to 2034. However, she does not specify how high the new budget should be.
Von der Leyen’s program can also be seen as a cautious restructuring of the European economic model. Economic policy should be geared more towards the domestic market. Domestic industry is also to be given greater preference in public procurement.
“I will propose a revision of the directive on the award of public contracts. This will make it possible to give preference to European products when awarding public contracts in certain strategic sectors”, writes von der Leyen in her program. This is intended to put the procurement market, which accounts for 14 percent of European GDP, more at the service of the European economy – a demand that France in particular has put forward to date.
Trade policy is also about more than just promoting foreign trade. The heavily export-oriented German Engineering Federation VDMA expressed concern about von der Leyen’s “very inward-looking” economic policy approach. “The opening of markets or even concrete plans to conclude ongoing negotiations and implement free trade agreements were missing from her speech”, said Managing Director Brodtmann.
Her new “foreign trade policy for today’s realities” is about economic security, trade, and investment in partnerships. Instead of major new free trade agreements, von der Leyen talks about “Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships”, in which market opening in third countries is combined with access to critical raw materials and European investment in the partner countries.
Neil Makaroff from the think tank Strategic Perspectives welcomes this development as an “opportunity to forge win-win partnerships with third countries and for decarbonization”. On one important condition, which hovers as a question over von der Leyen’s entire economic agenda: “It remains to be seen whether the Europeans will be able to put the resources behind this new industrial situation”, Makaroff told Table.Briefings.
Ursula von der Leyen’s guidelines for the 2024-2029 electoral term build on the objectives of the previous mandate in the area of digital and innovation. However, they place a different focus on the implementation and enforcement of existing laws in the new mandate. “We will now significantly intensify our enforcement in the coming mandate period“, the guidelines state. More investment in new technologies is also planned.
The protection of democracy and the fight against disinformation remain key issues. The new guidelines place a clear focus on the role of large technology companies. “Technology giants must take responsibility for their enormous systemic power in our society and economy”, they demand.
The chapter on digital policy is entitled “Increasing productivity through the spread of digital technologies“. It begins with the statement that Europe’s competitiveness is “impaired by its lower productivity compared to its direct global competitors”. The reason for this is the insufficient spread of digital technologies. This should change.
Specifically, von der Leyen wants to tackle the following topics in the new mandate to create a genuine digital single market:
In contrast, the Digital Networks Act proposed by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton at the end of the expired mandate is hardly reflected in the guidelines. Breton had presented a White Paper on the subject, with the plan that the next Commission would turn it into a law to implement the Digital Single Market. The envisaged measures – such as a contribution to network costs by the major technology companies – are not included.
In order to achieve competitiveness, von der Leyen also wants to usher in “a new age of inventiveness” and place “research and innovation, science and technology at the heart of our economy”. To this end, research spending is to increase and focus more on “strategic priorities, ground-breaking basic research, and disruptive innovation as well as scientific excellence”. In addition, the European Innovation Council is to complement the European Research Council.
Von der Leyen wants Europe to “make the most of the biotechnology revolution” and announced that she would propose a new European biotech act in 2025. This will be part of a broader strategy for European life sciences.
To protect children and young people in the digital space, von der Leyen is planning an EU-wide study to understand the impact of social media on the well-being of children and young people. She is also declaring war on dangerous practices on online platforms – such as endless scrolling, automatic playback, and constant push notifications. An action plan to combat cyberbullying is also on the agenda to address the increasing abuse on the internet.
As in her speech, von der Leyen also emphasizes in the guidelines how central a free and independent press is to democracy and the rule of law. In the guidelines, she commits to implementing the European Media Freedom Act in order to protect independent media and journalists.
Von der Leyen also sees the prevention of disinformation and foreign manipulation as crucial for the protection of democracy. To this end, she is proposing a new European protective shield for democracy. “Following the example of the French authority Viginum or the Swedish Office for National Psychological Defense, we will work to counter foreign manipulation of information and influence via the Internet.” This includes
Looking at the quantity alone, it is noticeable that digital topics take up significantly less space in the new guidelines than in 2019. Back then, a total of around seven pages (out of 24 pages) were explicitly dedicated to digital and innovation topics, which accounted for around 29% of the document. In the current document, there are around five pages (out of 35), which corresponds to only around 14 percent of the document.
While the Members of the European Parliament confirmed Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission yesterday, the French MEPs re-elected Yaël Braun-Pivet, the current President of the National Assembly, to the office.
This is a stage victory for President Emmanuel Macron, who has been heavily criticized for his decision to dissolve parliament just one hour after the results of the European elections. All eyes are now on the Élysée Palace: how will the president react to the election result?
Rarely has the election of the presidency of the National Assembly been so intensively commented on and followed by national and international media. This is because it is the first step on the way to forming a government, which is still a long time coming. “It is a signal, but certainly not a solution on the way to the imminent appointment of a government“, commented a French parliamentary source.
This delay is good for Emmanuel Macron. Because the longer this government is delayed, the more the political momentum loses the selfsame in favor of the left. The icing on the cake: The Olympic Games begin in France in a week’s time. A perfect opportunity for Emmanuel Macron to forget the current political confusion.
The struggles of the left within the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) are benefiting the president: The Socialists and La France Insoumise are fighting so fiercely over who should be the candidate for the post of prime minister that they have halted consultations. And this is even though time is running out for the left-wing camp.
Frustration is now also growing in civil society. In an article for “Le Monde”, a broad collective of trade unions, associations, artists and intellectuals called on the left-wing forces to “finally” put an end to the party divisions. “In the event of failure, the disillusionment of voters would be immense”, warn the signatories. Sophie Binet, General Secretary of the CGT trade union, which is close to the Communist Party, said: “Don’t disappoint us before you have even governed.”
So far, three of the four parties in the NRP continue to support the candidacy of economist and climate diplomat Laurence Tubiana, who played a key role in the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. The France Insoumise party continues to reject her candidacy, as it considers Tubiana to be too close to the positions of the Macron camp.
Tubiana is not impressed by this, saying she is “ready” to become prime minister. “I’m not asking for anything, but it’s a time for commitment, and that suits me”, she said. “The Nouveau Front Populaire didn’t win an absolute majority”, but it has “achieved a success”. For Tubiana, the NFP program offers an answer to the “social and ecological emergency in France”.
This policy must ensure “tax justice”, strive to “resume the social dialog on wages” and put the pension reform to the test: “You have to repeal the reform, freeze it, anything you want, but you don’t apply it”, says Tubiana. She also wants to reverse Macron’s tougher immigration law.
This stance is clearly difficult to reconcile with Macron’s positions. This makes it all the more important for his camp to play for time. But now the French Senate is intervening. Concerned about the political crisis, the senators briefly resumed their work and promised to be a “force for balance”. Conservative Senator Claude Malhuret said that for the first time France was “at an impasse”.
