The six policy priorities of the von der Leyen Commission: An end-of-term assessment

Written by Etienne Bassot.

As the ninth legislature approaches its end, with its final plenary session held from 22 to 25 April 2024, the time has come to make the final assessment in this series on how the von der Leyen Commission has delivered on the six policy priorities she and her College set at the beginning of their mandate.

When the Commission took office, on 1 December 2019, it was the European Green Deal which made the headlines, rather than COVID-19, which had then only just started to spread. Some 100 days later, the disease was officially declared a pandemic. At that time, work on the Commission’s other main priorities – a Europe fit for the digital age and an economy that works for people – was still in its infancy. The pandemic affected the Commission, as it affected everything everywhere for everyone. Two years later, Russia’s war on Ukraine was the second major shock that would impact this legislature. This ‘tectonic shift in European history’ (to use the words of the Versailles Declaration) tested the Commission’s geopolitical ambition with manifold consequences. And in the last months of the legislature another violent conflict broke out in the EU’s Neighbourhood, in the Middle East, adding to an already tense geopolitical environment. The front page photograph, taken during the February I 2024 plenary session’s Commission statement on two years of Russian’s war of aggression against Ukraine, is a reminder of this Commission’s geopolitical ambition.

Looking back on the four and a half years ranging from the first days of the Commission’s mandate to the European Parliament’s final session, two features emerge: first, throughout these two crises – literally – unknown to this generation in Europe, the European Commission has continued to deliver, as have the European Parliament and the Council, as co-legislators. Second, the Commission has used the challenges as opportunities challenges, even shocks, have raised European citizens’ awareness of the urgency to act, and mobilised the European institutions to move forward. Suffice to mention the pandemic triggering the Next Generation EU recovery instrument or the war on Ukraine leading to moves forward on European defence and on reducing energy dependency.

The present analysis covers all six of the Commission’s priorities. It combines a two-page presentation of each priority and a synthesis infographic (page 3) illustrating the degree of progress – both overall and under each of the six priorities.

Our analysis finds that, across the six priorities, 45 % of the initiatives announced have been adopted and 15 % are close to adoption. Taking a closer look, of the over 650 initiatives announced (661), 80 % (526) have now been submitted and, in the case of the legislative proposals, the co-legislators have started work. It is worth noting that almost one in five of the Commission’s initiatives are non-legislative, for instance strategies, action plans and other communications. Of the 526 initiatives that have been submitted, over half (57 %) have already been adopted (301) – by the legislators in the case of the legislative proposals, or simply by the Commission in the case of the non-legislative initiatives – and one in five (18 %) are close to adoption (97), with some of them likely still to be adopted during this legislature. This number has increased from 26 to 97 over the past six months, a tribute to the co-legislators’ efforts to move as many initiatives as possible to adoption. These same efforts mean fewer files are proceeding very slowly or currently blocked (down from 32 to 26). The remainder (102, or 19 %) are still proceeding normally through the legislative process, but will not be adopted under this legislature. In a small number of cases, proposals have been withdrawn, as indicated below.

Looking at each of the six policy priorities, the European Green Deal ranks highest in terms of the number of initiatives planned (167). The executive has tabled more than three out of four (77 %), half of the latter (50 %) having been adopted by the co-legislators. The third priority, ‘An economy that works for people’, comes next (141), with more initiatives tabled (120 or 85 %) but just over half of the latter have been adopted (52 %). The digital priority totals 114 initiatives planned, 71 % of EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service which have already been submitted (81), and 47 adopted (58 % of the latter). For ‘A stronger Europe in the world’, an area with relatively few legislative initiatives by definition, in contrast to the majority of the Commission’s priorities, eight out of ten (80 %) initiatives have already been tabled (see Section 4) and four in five adopted. For the other five priorities, an average of 18 % have not been submitted, from 25 % for ‘A Europe fit for the digital age’, to 23 % for ‘A European Green Deal’, 18 % for ‘A stronger Europe in the world’, 15 % for ‘Promoting our European way of life’ and 16 % for ‘A new push for democracy’ (see Sections 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6). This latter priority comes lowest in terms of number of initiatives announced (64).

This publication closes our bi-annual assessments of the Commission’s delivery during the ninth legislative cycle, but we are not yet at the end of the story. The next chapter will be the final plenary session of this legislature. On 25 April, we will see the outcome of a packed plenary agenda, with over 80 proposals before the Members. Recent weeks have amounted to a legislative marathon and the final plenary session will see a further race to vote, to make progress on as many files as possible. Publishing this paper just before this plenary session serves precisely to inform the Members of the European Parliament going into that session and, beyond them, all interested in European affairs.

After this final plenary session, the European Parliament will take stock of the files to be carried over to the next legislative term – the ‘unfinished business’, to use the words of the Rules of Procedure. It will be for the Conference of Presidents in the 10th legislature to decide on reasoned requests from parliamentary committees and other institutions to resume or continue the consideration of such unfinished business.

Looking back, we can compare this assessment with previous assessments. Our series started with the Juncker Commission in 2014. The 2014-2019 mandate was not one to lack major challenges, with terrorist attacks hitting Europe in its heart, migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in considerable numbers following the war in Syria, the vote on Brexit and the subsequent preparations for the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, and the arrival of a new, disruptive administration in the White House – to name just a few. Over the course of its mandate, the Juncker Commission had announced fewer initiatives than the current Commission (547 compared to 661), tabled almost as many (512 compared to 526) and seen more adopted (361 compared to 301).

Looking more broadly, when building compromise and reaching majorities is a challenge both in the Member States of the European Union and in democracies across the globe, and when democracy itself is challenged in too many places, these results are an achievement European institutions and citizens can be proud of, and an additional reason to cast a vote at the upcoming European elections, from 6 to 9 June 2024.

For more information on how the von der Leyen Commission’s agenda has progressed, a proposal-by-proposal assessment is available on the European Parliament’s ‘Legislative Train Schedule’ website, developed by EPRS.

Read the complete in-depth analysis on ‘The six policy priorities of the von der Leyen Commission: An end-of-term assessment‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.