AUTHOR: Antoine Oger

Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected as president of the European Commission for 2024-2029 by the European Parliament on 18 July. Antoine Oger, IEEP’s Research Director, looks in detail at the political guidelines for the next European Commission 2024-2029 that were published at this occasion. 

First, we want to congratulate Ms Von der Leyen as she is not only the first woman to hold this position but now only the third President of the European Commission to be re-elected for a second mandate in its modern form (after J. Delors 1985-1995 and J.M. Barroso 2004-2014).  

Her first mandate was rocked with challenges as intense as you could ever imagine, with a global pandemic, the return of war on the European continent, a cost-of-living crisis, the first-ever loss of a Member State with Brexit and the triple planetary crisis that is unfolding. In light of these challenges, the fact that her grand political project, the European Green Deal (EGD), remained the bedrock of the EU institutions throughout her mandate is an incredible achievement. The Green Deal, which was initially launched as a mere ad hoc response to the green wave of voters just 5 years ago, proved much more resilient than its opponents thought (or wished) it could be.

Eventually, the EGD put the European Union on the path to becoming the first-ever Net Zero economy by mid-century.  Yet it appears that these challenges and the anger and frustration associated with them, which culminated with the farmers’ protest early this year, are now impacting the climate and environmental ambition of the EGD. This was demonstrated through the results of last month’s European Elections with significant progress of far-right, anti-European, and largely climate-sceptic forces at the European Parliament. This new reality now made its way into the Political Guidelines for the next European Commission, yet it is also clear that the ambition to pursue many of the EGD objectives is still present albeit in a different form. 

Read the full analysis of our Research Director, Antoine Oger, on President Von der Leyen political guidelines.