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Inner opposition eliminated. Highly effective capitals and political forces neutered. Sufficient overlapping duty in her staff to make sure she’s the one attainable arbiter of actionable energy. By appointing a brand new slate of European commissioners in her personal picture, president Ursula von der Leyen this week ensured she is going to enter her second five-year stint on the head of the EU’s government with an ever-tighter grip on the Brussels machine.
On Tuesday, von der Leyen unveiled a tapestry of political compromises. She handed out grandiose titles to essential member states corresponding to France, Spain and Italy whereas maintaining the important thing levers of energy in the hands of her allies — and herself.
A day earlier, she disposed of her most outstanding inner critic, the erstwhile French commissioner Thierry Breton, with a deft piece of political horse-trading; convincing French President Emmanuel Macron to ship a extra amenable substitute in change for a kind of grandiose titles.
In a maze of overlapping duties and shared coverage management, von der Leyen has unveiled a staff of “equals” with sufficient complexity and chaos to make sure she is above the fray.
Even folks concerned within the formation of her staff — often known as the faculty of commissioners — describe it as “a matrix”, “a sophisticated construction” and “a variety of cross hyperlinks”.
These on the skin are extra blunt.
“It’s deliciously balanced in a approach that there are sufficient folks on every difficulty to make sure they may by no means all agree,” stated a senior EU diplomat concerned within the lobbying for commission portfolios. “Which implies she’s all the time going to be the one making the ultimate resolution.”
“Undoubtedly, she’s coming into this subsequent 5 years even stronger than earlier than,” the diplomat added.
At an off-the-cuff gathering of her new staff of commissioners, von der Leyen inspired the 5 incumbents who served in her first time period to clarify to the 21 newcomers what to anticipate. The message was clear: the supporting refrain may be completely different, however the lead actor stays the identical.
“Welcome to The Ursula Present,” quipped one particular person in attendance.
An admitted workaholic, the slight 65-year-old lives in a small house on the thirteenth flooring of the EU’s Berlaymont headquarters. Former workplace house has been refashioned into sparse dwelling quarters, which means she sleeps simply footsteps from her desk.
“She’s the toughest working of all of us,” stated an individual who works carefully together with her. “It’s usually brutal to maintain up.”
Diligent and details-focused to the purpose of driving a few of her aides to distraction, von der Leyen has over the previous 5 years tremendously expanded the facility of her workplace on the expense of each EU establishments and the prime ministers and presidents she was appointed by.
She responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by centralising decision-making round herself, delivering outcomes corresponding to a pan-EU vaccine programme and a fast sanctions programme in opposition to Moscow that was co-ordinated with the US White Home.
As home political turmoil has weakened the clout of Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — two places of work which have historically steered EU priorities — von der Leyen has pitched herself as the reply to Henry Kissinger’s legendary query: “who do I name if I wish to converse to Europe?”.
Few choices at the moment are reached in Brussels with out the approval or at the least acquiescence of “the thirteenth flooring”.
Critics say she routinely overstretches her powers and bypasses correct due course of. She is topic to an ongoing authorized demand to publish personal textual content messages with Albert Bourla, chief government of Pfizer, throughout the race for Covid-19 vaccine contracts.
However admirers, together with many EU leaders, revere her skill to get issues performed by slicing by the byzantine layers of European forms.
Born in Brussels in 1958, the place her father was one of many unique German Eurocrats, von der Leyen enrolled on the London College of Economics in 1978 below a false identify and police safety resulting from kidnap threats associated to her father’s outstanding political profession.
She later graduated in Hannover as a health care provider of drugs, earlier than elevating her younger household in California for 4 years whereas her husband labored at Stanford College.
A mom of seven, she was first elected to the German state parliament of Decrease Saxony in 2003. She would serve 14 years in chancellor Angela Merkel’s cupboard, first as minister for household affairs, then labour and social affairs and eventually defence.
In 2019 she was plucked from relative obscurity by Merkel and Macron to guide the European Fee after extra outstanding alternate options did not win political backing. She landed in Brussels underestimated by many who assumed she could possibly be simply manipulated by nationwide capitals and the fee forms.
Those self same bureaucrats now fear that with 5 years’ expertise, a extra amenable fee and continued weak point in Paris and Berlin, nothing is left to face in the way in which of her private ambition and drive.
