Motion of Censure: Decommissioning the Commission President?

Motion of Censure: Decommissioning the Commission President?
Although she will live to see another day, the Motion de Censure is a wake-up call

LinkedIn blog post, 07/07/2025, by Sven Franck (en français , in Deutsch)

TL;DR - Last week a Romanian MEP from the ECR group tabled a motion of censure against Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her role in the Pfizergate scandal and interference in German and Romanian elections. It was the first such motion since 2014 and, although unlikely to succeed, it was a wake-up call for all the wrong reasons.

R.I.P. EU?

The extreme-right actually has little to complain as the Commission President has slowly been pivoting towards them: From the opaque migrant scheme with Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Tunisia to the recent unwinding of the Green Deal.

If anyone in Parliament had reasons for a motion, it would have been the progressive forces. They supported a second term of Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president and are suddenly faced with a potential majority of Conservatives and the extreme-right led by... Ursula von der Leyen.

Led? Or rather not, because this new majority wants a Europe of nations. The less EU leadership, the better. After all, why is the EU's High Representative for foreign affairs laying low while Macron and Merz do the foreign policy heavy lifting? How come that faced with Trump slapping tariffs on the European Union (not member states, mind you), you hear little of the Commission and its president.

Instead, NATO chief Mark Rutte, in a poetic kowtow, signed up EU member states to increase military spendings “big-ly” - which might very well tear the Nato and Union apart, see the Slovenian referendum on Nato membership.

Not my president

If your French permits, listen to Claude Malhuret's recent speech in the French Senate. "Où est passée l’Europe?" ~ Whatever happened to Europe, which, to him, is like a sandcastle washed away by the tides, presided by 27 state leaders, happy to not disagree but not agreeing on anything and mostly posing for photos. He closes with a plea for Europe to wake up.

Can Europe wake up with these national leaders and the current Commission? I don't think so. Waking up means restarting the European project. It will take longer than a national mandate, so why even bother? And the Commission President, who sometimes lipservices treaty changes lately keeps liptight and out of the spotlight.

The current motion of censure will probably not pass, but it will be grueling until 2029. For me, things will only move with bottom-up pressure. Another Commission President appointed by the Council via backroom deals will just mean more water on the aforementioned sand castle. If we want to put the European Union on a solid foundation, we need a Commission President with a project backed by the general population coming out of the Parliament. This should be on everyones' agenda. #jumpstartEU.