The Next Chapter; Where is Europe headed? Who leads it?

Today (27 Nov 2024), the European Parliament has confirmed the new EU Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen. This concludes a five-month-long power struggle and sets Europe on a new path.

Where that path leads and who will actually lead the EU on it, is still unclear. 

Here’s why: The new and old Commission President von der Leyen made clear that she intends to lead the EU with a democratic platform, consisting of her conservative EPP, the social democratic S&D, the liberals in Renew, and, the Greens/EFA group. At the same time, her EPP with its leader Manfred Weber has repeatedly created majorities against this very platform with the three far-right groups in the Parliament. Raffaele Fitto, a member of the right-wing extremist Fratelli d’Italia gets a top position in the new EU Commission, despite his group voting against von der Leyen.

What sounds like an episode of House of Cards will very much determine the lives of every single European in the next four years.

Because, on topics like action against climate change and nature destruction, on a social Europe with its own resources, on the defence of individual freedoms and on the rule of law, the EU is deeply divided.

This is why we invited Professor Alberto Alemanno to our next Europe Calling webinar. Alberto is Jean Monnet professor of EU law, at HEC Paris, and the founder of The Good Lobby. He is one of the most outspoken voices when it comes to European democracy, and how to defend and improve it. In July, he wrote, “Ursula von der Leyen has lost Europe’s trust. She doesn’t deserve a second term”. 

We want to hear from Alberto, what he thinks about the path the EU took over the last year, where it will head and who will lead it. And maybe most importantly, what the role of citizens like all of us can be here.