EU Parliament puts EPP on the ropes, which corners von der Leyen

Brussels – The European Commission will gain confidence, but it is not good news for the EU. The People’s Party (EPP) succeeds in weakening Ursula von der Leyen, even when the motion of censure may paradoxically strengthen her. However, for the president of the EU executive and her college, the path now becomes narrower and more impassable. As announced and anticipated, the European Parliament promises to reject the no-confidence motion. However, out of the debate ahead of the expected vote on Thursday (10 July) comes a downsized EPP, as it is under attack. 

Socialists (S&D), Liberals (Re) and Greens, in different tones and ways, make it clear that support will not be unconditional. There will be something in return to offer, and the request is the abandonment of any idea of working with the extreme right. The Socialist group leader, Iratxe García Pérez, sums it up better than the others when she says, referring to Manfred Weber, the EPP group leader in Parliament and also party president, that “this motion is the direct consequence of his failed strategy.” A reference to the attempts at convergence with the Conservatives (ECR), from which the motion of censure originated. “Aren’t you the ones who joined the right to dismantle the Green Deal?” A request for clarification that the group leader also addresses to von der Leyen: “Why did you withdraw the law on green claims the day after the EPP and ECR asked you to? With whom do you intend to govern?” 

https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/07/07/commission-relaunches-nature-credits-to-support-the-green-economy-and-save-itself/ 

Governing Europe: This is the real crux of the matter, and it will always be more so. Because on the day that the chamber debates the confidence in von der Leyen, the latter is put in trouble by her own political family. In the Council, 18 out of 27 Member States are calling for an amendment of the deforestation regulation and postponement of its entry into force. A letter signed by nine countries with an EPP-led government (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden) and two countries with an ECR-led government (Italy and the Czech Republic) that puts the president of the European Commission in a corner: either to respond to the Council’s demands—difficult, given the numbers, 18 out of 27 member states—and antagonise the Socialists and Greens in Parliament, or to keep the point and live out an all internal EPP-led fray. 

This will not be a smooth continuation of the legislature. Von der Leyen may see the Parliament’s consensus rise compared to the narrow investiture obtained by the college at the beginning of the five-year term, the most fragile ever, but she will be under siege from her allies. The Liberals press on: “Who are your allies in this chamber?” asks Valerie Hayer, leader of the Re group, who deliberately prods von der Leyen. She reminds that, given the situation marked by rising tensions in the Middle East, Trump’s tariffs, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, “there is more need than ever” for the European Union. ‘No’ to the motion of censure, therefore, but something will have to change, and this change will have to be brought about by the populars.

“There is no left-wing majority, but there is no right-wing majority either,” recalls Green group leader Bas Eickhut. “There is a majority of centrist and pro-European forces.” And it is to these forces that von der Leyen appeals in her speech aimed at dismantling accusations about the handling of the health crisis. She vindicates what has been done, in terms of health protection as well as economic support, through the unprecedented common debt, the sharing of masks and medical equipment, and the vaccination campaign that began simultaneously everywhere. She distances himself from the ‘extremists’ who signed the motion of censure, and calls on the pro-democratic and pro-European forces to move forward in the name of ‘compromise’. The Parliament is willing, now everything will depend, however, on von der Leyen and his EPP. 

Nicola Procaccini, co-chairman of the Conservatives, is well aware of this. For Fratelli d’Italia, of which he is an expression, this initiative against the Commission and its chairwoman, von der Leyen, is a serious political headache. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has gone to great lengths to establish a privileged relationship with von der Leyen and recalibrate relations not only between the EU and Italy but also between European political forces. “Unfortunately,” Procaccini acknowledges, “this motion of censure will make the fortune of the socialists and greens.” Political equilibrium and alliances should redefine themselves, in the sense of a definitive closure to the right for the EPP. That is, if the Populars will succeed. This is the great unknown in a legislative period that has suddenly become more uncertain, with von der Leyen at risk of emerging from it greatly diminished.