The new European Commission validated in Strasbourg

(Keystone-ATS) The European executive obtained 370 votes (282 against, 36 abstentions). Ursula von der Leyen’s second term will be able to begin, around fifty days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States. A sense of urgency prevailed.

Europe has “no time to lose”, warned the President of the Commission, prioritizing competitiveness to “close” the gap with the United States and China. “Our freedom and our sovereignty depend more than ever on our economic power,” she insisted.

In terms of Defense, Ursula von der Leyen then insisted on the need to do more to compete with Russian military spending, at a time when the return of Donald Trump raises fears of a disengagement of the United States in Ukraine.

“Our expenses must increase,” said the 66-year-old German. “Russia spends up to 9% of its GDP on defense. Europe spends on average 1.9%. There is something wrong with this equation,” she insisted.

The Shadow of Trump

Preparing for the return of Mr. Trump is “the most urgent challenge” of this second term of Ursula von der Leyen, agrees Luigi Scazzieri, analyst at the Center for European Reform. On “two fronts”: trade with the Republican president-elect’s promise to increase customs duties on European products and “security” with the risk of disengagement by the United States in Ukraine.

Despite these challenges, the European Parliament will have struggled before approving the new Commission. The groups clashed over the vice-presidency granted to the Italian Raffaele Fitto (Territorial Cohesion), member of Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Fratelli d’Italia party, while the left demanded the maintenance of a “cordon health”.

Ms. Von der Leyen assumed this vice-presidency, which allows her to maintain her relations with Ms. Meloni. “It’s a choice that I made,” she said to MEPs.

Kaja Kallas at diplomacy

After several days of standoff, the EPP (right), the centrists of Renew and the social democrats ended up painfully sealing an agreement to approve all of the proposed commissioners, a first in twenty years.

Among the new faces, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas becomes the new head of EU diplomacy, French centrist Stéphane Séjourné gets a vice-presidency with a broad portfolio on industrial strategy and Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera will be vice-president for ecological transition and competition.

This new Commission leans to the right with around fifteen portfolios, out of 27, allocated to the EPP (right), the main political force in Parliament.

EPP leader Manfred Weber did not hide his satisfaction. It is a “very balanced” Commission, he launched, mentioning a possible parliamentary majority ranging from ECR (extreme right), where the Italian MEPs of Giorgia Meloni sit, to certain Greens.

“Need for stability”

In passing, the German official once again brushed off the left’s accusations of its ambiguities with the far right. “There are red lines” and no cooperation possible with those who are not “pro-Europe, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law”, he reaffirmed, distinguishing between the troops of Giorgia Meloni and the two other far-right groups.

At the head of the Social Democrats, the Spaniard Iratxe Garcia-Pérez highlighted the “need for stability” in Europe to explain her support for the new team. But it is “not a blank check”, she said, warning the EPP. “We will not accept double dealing” with the far right.

The granting of a vice-presidency to Raffaele Fitto divided his group. French socialists voted against the new Commission. “We are crossing a red line, we should have a combat commission, capable of defending the general European interest, and I do not believe that Fratelli d’Italia is on that line,” denounced Frenchman Raphaël Glucksmann (Place public).

Among the Patriots, on the far right, the Frenchman Jordan Bardella rejected the new team outright, “commissioners unknown to the general public who dictate the daily lives of 450 million citizens”, he castigated.