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European governments are irritated by what they see as Ursula von der Leyen's move to position herself as the EU's top representative abroad, saying that during the early days of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran she went beyond her mandate.
In conversations with POLITICO, nine diplomats, EU officials and lawmakers from European countries, large and small, criticized what they described as diplomatic overreach by the European Commission president. The disapproval of her handling of the Iran crisis comes in addition to criticism of other foreign policy issues, including the Commission’s efforts to speed up Ukraine’s entry into the EU and von der Leyen’s approach to Donald Trump’s “Peace Board.”
With the Middle East conflict entering its second week, the EU has struggled to speak with a common voice. Some governments are concerned that von der Leyen appears to be taking on the role normally played by the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, who is supposed to represent the 27 capitals. In the early days of the crisis, von der Leyen signaled support for regime change in Tehran and held no fewer than a dozen phone calls with EU and Gulf leaders. She has repeatedly expressed public positions that go beyond the consensus among the bloc’s members, her critics said.
“ I felt like I was hallucinating… seeing Ursula von der Leyen calling the heads of the Gulf states. She has no diplomatic service, she speaks without a mandate or without intelligence information. Her words have no value beyond her individual statement ,” said Nathalie Loiseau, a centrist French lawmaker on the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
The role of coordinating the bloc’s foreign policy, diplomats who spoke to POLITICO said, falls to Kallas, whose job is to engage with capitals and formulate a common position — even if that is often a slow and laborious process. Von der Leyen risks creating confusion in relations with the rest of the world, they said.
“The problem is that the president comes up with ideas and somehow commits to the European Union without consulting the countries first. She is saying things that are not in her mandate ,” said a senior EU diplomat involved in foreign policy discussions and who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak frankly about sensitive domestic issues.
These tensions will be in the background as von der Leyen and Kallas chair a conference of EU ambassadors in Brussels today, where both will deliver keynote speeches. The Commission rejected the allegations, saying von der Leyen was doing her job properly. She is demonstrating “political leadership of the Commission’s foreign policy” in line with EU treaties, a Commission spokesman said.
"Communicating with other leaders around the world is an integral part of President von der Leyen's responsibilities, whether bilaterally, multilaterally or in EU-led initiatives such as the Global Gateway event," designed to boost investment worldwide, the spokesperson said.
The EU's official position on the Iran war was not set by von der Leyen, but was set out by Kallas in a statement coordinated with the 27 European countries a week ago, according to the spokesperson. " The statement reflects the EU's position on this issue ," the spokesperson said.
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