Von der Leyen’s big budget moment ends in chaos

A day of cancelled briefings, internal dissent, angry MEPs and confusion over the budget's biggest numbers: Commission President Ursula von der Leyen may very well have gone too far in her bold bid to re-think the EU project.

Fed up with a never-changing EU spending plan under the multiannual financial framework and emboldened by a dual defence and competitiveness crisis, von der Leyen has mobilised all her political savvy to break the status quo and centre the EU project on herself and the European Commission.

Since October, she has been socialising radical ideas for what the next EU budget could look like, and meticulously working behind closed doors on a setup to centralise power in a palatable form for key EU countries.

She overplayed her hand. In the critical moment to make her pitch, von der Leyen faced rebellion within her own Commission and did not appear to present her budget overhaul herself. A proposal was initially expected this morning, with briefings in parliament throughout the day. Instead, they failed to land final numbers, six commissioners rebelled against her funding plan, and Parliament briefings were repeatedly delayed or cancelled throughout the day.

“I have literally no idea what is going on,” Siegfried Mureșan, Parliament’s budget co-lead from von der Leyen’s own party, told Euractiv at midday.

The Šefčovič shuffle – The EU’s top trade negotiator Maroš Šefčovič is jetting to Washington on Wednesday for talks with his US counterparts as the bloc renews its push to settle the transatlantic tariffs stand-off. The trip follows Trump’s threat of a 30 percent levy on European goods from 1 August.
Meta fine – The European Commission is still considering whether to impose further fines on Meta over its advertising model under the Digital Markets Act following a €200 million decision against the social media giant’s pay-or-consent ad practices earlier this year, citing remaining issues that the company has yet to clean up.

Must the show go on? – Valery Gergiev, the world-renowned orchestra conductor and known Putin backer, prepares to perform at a state-backed music festival in southern Italy on 27 July despite mounting concern over his performance – though the region’s governor supports the show.
My likeness, not yours – The Danish presidency is set to push for EU-wide protection for people’s identities, especially to prevent the usage of personal attributes in AI deepfake generation – the law would allow for citizens to require social media companies to take down AI images that imitate them.
Out-of-prime minister runs again – French conservative Michel Barnier of Les Républicains, the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator and briefly serving French prime minister in 2024, has announced his candidacy in a September Paris parliamentary election following the annulment of a Macron-aligned candidate’s 2024 victory.

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