A la guerre comme à la guerre. The new European Commission, as announced by its chief Ursula von der Leyen, shines with its strong ‘military wing’.

During her first term, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen capitalised on the union doing its utmost to help Ukraine fight the Russian aggressor. She largely owes her re-election to this dossier in particular so it is only natural that she banks on the same winning strategy for her second term.

We already said that a hardline female trio now symbolises the EU – von der Leyen, Kaja Kallas as foreign affairs chief and Roberta Metsola as European Parliament chief, all known for their gung-ho attitude toward Putin.

To this, we must add the first-ever Defence Commissioner, Lithuania’s former prime minister Andrius Kubilius. Not only does he add a needed masculine presence, but he clearly confirms this new Baltic supremacy, when it comes to the EU deciding how to tackle Russia.

Kubilius’ mission is to boost the continent’s arms industry by getting EU countries to spend more on European weapons and procure them jointly with other governments and by getting companies themselves, to cooperate more across borders. How much he will be successful, depends on what funds the leaders of member states allocate for defence in the next EU long-term budget.

It must be said that during the many years when Angela Merkel was the symbol of the EU, the Baltics and Poland were misjudged as anti-Russian bellicists, who could only bring trouble. But the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia has proved them right.

When the name of Latvia’s Kaja Kallas started circulating for an EU or NATO top job, it became obvious that she had many friends. Her few detractors considered that the Baltics’ traditional anti-Russian stance did not help in diplomacy, which was her field of responsibility.

Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, be ready for war. This is the usual response to critics who think the EU is becoming too bellicose. Politicians like Merkel and even Macron tried diplomacy with Putin, and we all know the result of that.

But are all candidates for commissioners on the same board regarding Russia? We have reasons to doubt this in the cases of Slovenia’s Marta Kos, Bulgaria’s Ekaterina Zaharieva, and even Belgium’s Hadja Lahbib.

In Lahnbib in her former capacity as a journalist, the latter visited Crimea in 2021 on a trip organised and financed by Russia. The issue became hot when she was appointed as the foreign minister one year later, as according to Ukrainian legislation, she is not allowed to set foot in this country. She said she regretted the visit.

We journalists are bombarded with invitations to visit places, including Crimea, often with all expenses paid. We either ignore such invitations or at least discuss them at editorial meetings and reject controversial trips. I cannot imagine how no one advised her not to go.

Ekaterina Zaharieva was Bulgaria’s foreign minister when the controversial TurkStream pipeline was built across Bulgaria under the name of Balkan Stream. If it was not her personally, it was her party, GERB, which gave Putin the key to the Balkans.

As foreign minister, Zaharieva proposed that Jordan Kamcev, also known as Orce Kamcev, the wealthiest man in North Macedonia, be appointed Bulgaria’s honorary consul in this country.

That was in 2018, and she publicly defended the appointment in parliament. In 2023, the US government sanctioned Kamcev for corruption. It is now known that Kamcev financed the VMRO-DPMNE political party which does its utmost, to ensure North Macedonia stays away from the EU, as Russia wants.

Marta Kos has reportedly made conciliatory comments toward Russia after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As she is assigned the geopolitically important enlargement portfolio, some question the wisdom of her carrying such responsibility.

No need to mention her predecessor with the enlargement portfolio, Oliver Varhelyi, who is a candidate again, but the Parliament remembers how he used his portfolio to the profit of his political master.

We do not tag anyone as a Russian stooge. We remember from history the sad episode of McCarthyism in the US when repressive legislation was enacted, and many innocents suffered enormously on false allegations.

But we live in a democratic environment and the European Parliament has the competence and the authority to play its role, in the vetting of candidates for commissioners. Their credentials vis-à-vis Russia need to be bullet-proof.

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The Roundup

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has designed her second-term commissioner team to ‘divide and rule’ in the next five years.

After Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her team of commissioners and their portfolios on Tuesday (17 September), the European Parliament is now getting ready to scrutinise the proposed candidates.

After years of stagnating electrification rates in the European Union, the nomination of an electricity-friendly energy commissioner with a mandate to create an ‘Electrification Action Plan’ is giving beleaguered power sector stakeholders fresh hope.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis are set for tough talks on Thursday morning (19 September) ahead of a pivotal vote by EU member states next week.

The European Commission will formally specify steps that Apple needs to take to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) around its interoperability with other products, the EU executive announced on Thursday (19 September).

The European Parliament recognised Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected president of the country with a non-binding resolution passed on Thursday (19 September).

The Slovenian government finally submitted nomination papers for Marta Kos to become its European commissioner on Thursday (19 September), paving the way for the European Parliament to kick off its confirmation procedures, Slovenian government and EU sources told Euractiv.

The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is trying to reconcile member states’ hesitance with the eagerness for telecom sector consolidation as highlighted in the Letta and Draghi reports, according to draft Council conclusions dated Wednesday (18 September) and seen by Euractiv.

The EU’s new clean industrial strategy must strike a balance between protecting key industries, not unduly shielding others, and creating a strong business case for clean products, key EU officials said on Wednesday (18 September) – with one admitting ‘a big debate on funding’ will ensue.

Look out for…

• European Commission organises the “Third EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement Civil Society Forum,” in Brussels, Belgium.
• Heinrich Böll Stiftung organises a conference debate on “Geopolitics and Asian Raw Materials.”
• Informal meeting of EU transport ministers, runs for a second day, in Budapest, Hungary.
• EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain for the XVII edition of the Cotec Europe Symposium: Dialogue – Defence and Security.