The second von der Leyen Commission: how is the EU executive faring?

Now well into her second mandate, Ursula von der Leyen faces mounting criticism that her Commission is less effective than during its first term. This raises difficult questions for the Executive and political onlookers alike: is this a leadership problem, or is it the result of a fundamentally changed political environment? How does the shift from emergency governance to long-term strategy affect the Commission’s power? Has centralisation inside the Commission gone too far, leading to weakened internal checks and balances? And can von der Leyen still rely on stable majorities in an increasingly polarised Parliament?

This Lab session examines how von der Leyen II is governing under new geopolitical, institutional and parliamentary constraints, and asks what this means for the EU’s inter-institutional balance and the future of EU leadership.