The EU’s Commission Chief Is Increasingly Seen as Too Powerful

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The highly centralized power structure and reluctance to delegate means bottlenecks that are holding up major policy decisions.

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A draft strategy to complete the bloc’s internal market, prepared by Commission Vice President Stephane Sejourne’s team, was ready by November, and that’s where it sat for months.

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At a summit in February, EU leaders urged the commission to present the blueprint in March jointly with the other institutions, but the European Parliament and member states didn’t see the document until days before it was finally released in late April. The commission said its work “evolved” to tackle competitiveness more broadly and is now an “unprecedented document consisting of a clear roadmap.”

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Meanwhile, companies see a region that’s underperforming, squeezed between the US and China. Europe, for example, remains behind its peers in terms of harnessing the power of AI and developing a chip sector.

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There was a stark assessment from ASML Holding NV Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen last month as he noted that the company, Europe’s most valuable, gets only 1% of its revenue from the region: “We’re here in Europe. I cannot stop pointing out to you, EMEA at 1%, is a major red flag for industry,” he told shareholders. 

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Another example was von der Leyen’s handling last summer of the EU’s long-term budget, a controversial topic that generates heated debate about spending priorities and who foots the bill. Again, the draft plan wasn’t shared with commissioners until the last minute. EU countries were also unhappy with the lack of consultation, even though von der Leyen was proposing a record spending plan of almost €2 trillion ($2.4 trillion).

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Within hours of the grand announcement, Berlin publicly rejected the plan. Chancellor Merz was particularly displeased with a move to levy corporate taxes, which contradicted a recent promise he made to German companies to lower their levies.

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To be sure, the commission has been navigating a turbulent world, with Trump making a fresh bid to seize Greenland and then disrupting global energy supplies with his attack on Iran. But that gets to the heart of the problem for many of those working closely with the commission: the president is constantly jumping into the middle of the latest crisis, even when its outside of her remit, rather than focusing on delivering on her key mission.

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“Europe can more easily overcome its slowness by dealing with fewer things, and doing them much better,” Meloni said in a Bloomberg interview earlier this year. “I see decisions being made and then they’re slowed down by a bureaucracy that sometimes seems to have its own agenda.”

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While there is tension between the commission and a number of countries, the German criticism is particularly telling given that von der Leyen, Merz and Jens Spahn, who leads the conservative parliamentary caucus, are all technically party colleagues. 

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Tight Control

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Von der Leyen took over as commission president in December 2019, and was reelected in 2024. Her commitment was in little doubt from day one. Part of her office space at the top of the Berlaymont was turned into a room where she sleeps during the week.

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Defenders say she’s injected the position with fresh authority, enhancing the role of the EU on the world stage. 

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Some are also fine with her leadership style, as long as things get done. And a number of EU officials and diplomats blame member states for impeding work on the internal market by prioritizing national interests.