Ursula von der Leyen inherits a sprawling, pluralistic club riven with differences
was no one’s first choice to be president of the European Commission. She did not run for the job during the European election campaign in May as a “lead candidate” representing a political grouping. Only because national leaders could not settle on an alternative did they resort to Germany’s now-former defence minister, a centrist Christian Democrat. The European Parliament, newly fragmented after the elections, was barely convinced and endorsed her candidacy with a majority of just nine votes.
That has changed. Successive treaties have made the president more accountable to the European Parliament, more powerful over ordinary commissioners and better able to set the agenda. The latest stage of the process came in 2014 when the “lead candidate” convention came in, offering voters a chance to endorse a prospective president by voting for his or her party family.
Mrs von der Leyen, a wonkish and unflashy type, cannot point to much of a mandate from the parliament. It is thus tempting to assume that she will ditch the “political commission”, subordinate herself more to national leaders and restore theThe early evidence suggests otherwise. From the start, Mrs von der Leyen has sought to put her political stamp on the next commission. She has insisted on there being more female commissioners.
Those pending appointments point to three other emerging features of Mrs von der Leyen’s commission. First, she is keen not to reverse but to extend the Juncker-era politicisation. Second, the new commission will have a leftish hue on many big issues.
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