FIIA Briefing Paper: Priorities of the new EU Commission

Deutsch

By Manuel Müller

The European Union’s strengths have traditionally been in long-term, rather than short-term policymaking. With its consensus-oriented system and its focus on legislation and regulation rather than executive action, it has sometimes been slow to respond to changing circumstances. On the other hand, the same consensus-oriented system has also made it less prone to sudden policy shifts, and a shared vision of “ever closer union” has enabled it to pursue integration goals like the creation of the single market or the development of supranational institutions over decades. 

However, the recent accumulation of interrelated crises, coupled with domestic pressure from the far right and disagreements between member state governments, has made long-term policy planning difficult. With even the short-term outlook appearing highly uncertain, the EU is forced to drive on sight – even though its institutional infrastructure is often ill-equipped for the kind of rapid, reactive decision-making that this requires.

Struggling to balance long-term goals with short-term needs

The effort to respond to these challenges is reflected in the structure and policy priorities of Ursula von der Leyen’s new Commission, currently under scrutiny by the European Parliament. Von der Leyen has organized her team with a centralized core of power around herself and a small number of executive vice-presidents, and many overlapping portfolios for individual commissioners. This will give her the flexibility to assign specific tasks according to the needs of the moment, even though more structural reforms will be required to overcome other fundamental inefficiencies in the EU’s decision-making capacity.

In terms of priorities, the Commission’s agenda has been marked by recent crises and urgencies, often related to the increased strategic competition at the global level. This creates tensions between short-term policy responses and traditional long-term objectives, particularly those that do not easily translate into immediate geopolitical gains. But even when driving on sight is unavoidable, one must know one’s destination. While acting with short-term necessities in mind and equipping itself to deal with current geopolitical crises, the EU must also be aware of the long-term consequences of its policies and ensure that its measures today are congruent with its vision for the world of tomorrow.

New FIIA Briefing Paper

In a new Briefing Paper for the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, my colleagues and I take a look at the Commission’s priorities in five key policy areas impacted by regional and global crises: economic policy; climate and energy; asylum and migration; foreign, security and defence policy; and enlargement and institutional reform.

The complete Briefing Paper can be found here.

Picture: Cover of the FIIA Briefing Paper, based on a photo by European Parliament / European Union 2022 [CC BY 4.0], via Flickr.