Brussels, 18 July 2024 – Ursula von der Leyen will continue as president of the European Commission, after receiving the backing of 401 MEPs in a highly anticipated vote in Strasbourg today. Before the vote she also presented MEPs with her “political guidelines” for her second term, which runs from 2024 to 2029.
Commenting on von der Leyen’s re-election, Greenpeace EU director Jorgo Riss said: Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t thrown the Green Deal overboard, but she presented an agenda for her second term which is lacking in concrete measures and major new initiatives, and which is clearly a lot less coherent than her first term. Her economic plans ignore the increasingly fragile ecological foundations on which all employment and economic activity depend, and will not improve people’s wellbeing. Her agenda bears the imprint of big business interests and will lead to more neocolonial resource competition, pollution and exploitation of people and ecosystems. There’s a clear risk that her next term in office will suffer from even more of the internal contradictions that have undermined Europe’s green ambitions so far.”
While campaigning ahead of the European Parliament elections in June, president von der Leyen said “The young people would never forgive us… if we would not live up to the challenge to protect our nature.” Greenpeace is concerned that, given the political deals she had to make to win today’s vote, this risks being an empty promise.
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