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When Ursula von der Leyen took over the leadership of the EU Commission in 2019, the Union was different. The pandemic weighed on European solidarity, but it also opened up unimaginable possibilities.
By Holger Beckmann, ARD-Studio Brussels
I wanted to do great things: create a lot, change a lot, do a lot of things. And when Ursula von der Leyen, who describes herself as a thoroughly convinced European, delivered her application speech for the post of Commission President in the European Parliament last summer, many believed. Also many critics.
Von der Leyen is noted less for his emotional outbursts than for his objectivity and sobriety. And with total seriousness and seriousness, he focused on one issue: climate protection. Europe should become the global pioneer, and even more so: the first climate-neutral continent in history, by 2050.
The new chairman of the Commission announced extensive future programs: more money for digitization, research, health protection. Von der Leyen also wanted to find a solution in the migration debate, regarding the question of how to treat refugees from the world’s war and crisis zones, which is now back in the spotlight due to events in the Greek island of Lesbos.
All things considered: the European Union must come closer, tackle the tasks of the future and become an actor among world powers that takes itself seriously, in Moscow and Washington, as well as in Beijing.
What’s next in the headlines?
According to political scientist Janis Emanouilidis of the Center for European Policy in Brussels, von der Leyen used correct and important titles, but the specific content must follow them.
But what followed was the corona pandemic. And that suddenly changed von der Leyen’s agenda. The pandemic posed and continues to pose challenges for Europe that the 27 member states have never faced before. The coronavirus arrived in an unpredictable and terrifying way, and from one day to the next no one was talking about big common European headlines.
Instead, member states sought national rescue and isolation. Working alone, the medical protection team was amassed in panic, closures were imposed, travel warnings were issued, borders were closed.
Corona shows how fragile the European alliance is
On several occasions von der Leyen had to remind the heads of state and government of European capitals that acting alone is dangerous, especially for the European internal market. Because it lives on open borders and the free movement of goods and people. The pandemic suddenly showed all the vulnerability of the continent and the EU, says Danish MEP Christel Schaldemose, and this is how many in the EU Parliament see it.
It’s the massive economic crisis that sparked the worst fears in the Brussels EU Commission, von der Leyen and his team in the spring. Fears, at the end of which there will be a breakdown of the euro and of the entire internal market, with all the consequences for the EU population: waves of bankruptcies, massive unemployment, supply shortages, growing poverty.
Paolo Genitlloni, Europe’s economic commissioner from Italy, spoke of an unprecedented external shock to the EU economy and, of course, he also has his own country in view, which is threatened with a debt trap. Von der Leyen called for a common European response to this scenario. Indeed, it took weeks of negotiations for the 27 EU finance ministers to come up with an initial aid package.
However, it was clear from the start: that wouldn’t be enough. Stronger European forces are needed to face the crisis and, above all, to help the countries of Europe with money that they can hardly do on their own; also as a signal to the international financial markets that Europe is serious about its own future, the internal market and the euro.
Berlin and Paris took the initiative
After all, it was not the EU Commission that paved the way for this, but Germany and France, with their joint common European debt initiative to overcome the economic consequences of the crown. This way: for the first time in the history of the EU.
Angela Merkel looked into the European abyss together with Emanuel Macron, it is said in Brussels. Because Germany never really wanted to have such common debts. But Merkel didn’t want to risk Europe either.
Some speak of the corona bonds that were introduced, others of the fact that Europe will eventually become a debt union. The economist Guntram Wolff of the Brussels think tank Bruegel takes it seriously: he says the EU is creating an instrument that will ensure the stability of Europe and the euro in the long term. That is exactly what is needed now.
Space again for your original goals
Von der Leyen has carried forward the Franco-German initiative from the beginning. The fact that the 500 billion originally foreseen by Paris and Berlin eventually turned into 750 billion is also due to their influence. And from now on, the Commission has a flagship looking to the future: a program called “Europe’s Next Generation”. Another great headline. The fact is that with the Crown reconstruction fund and common European debts, the Leyens Commission is gaining considerable power and influence in Europe.
Because Brussels assumes this debt for all members of the EU together; money is distributed from Brussels, Brussels returns it. Therefore, the EU Commission will also need a joint European income, which has not yet existed either. And that will be more than a plastic tax, many suspect. That would be a further increase in power.
Von der Leyen may not have planned that at the beginning of his tenure, but: under the sonorous name of “Next Generation”, he can now focus on his original goals again, perhaps even better than before. She will underline that she wants that with her speech in the EU Parliament. Von der Leyen’s Europe is completely different from what it was in December, at the beginning of her term.
