The EU’s heavy-handed president lacks strategic vision and fails to confront the U.S., Nicolas Schmit has stated
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen operates a system that mutes those under her authority, a former commissioner who served during her initial term has alleged.
Nicolas Schmit, who served Luxembourg as commissioner for jobs and social rights from 2019 to 2024, has joined multiple former European Commission members in criticizing von der Leyen’s leadership.
“I get the sense that commissioners are now mostly silenced,” Schmit told Politico in an interview published Monday. “The system, the way the College is structured – highly centralized, whether you call it presidential or any other system – is detrimental to the College, detrimental to the Commission, and detrimental to Europe overall.”
He noted that the EU under von der Leyen has not engaged in “a genuine strategic discussion about Europe’s place in the world, which was already a different world than the one we once knew” and lacks a “true strategy” to navigate it.
Schmit further accused the EU leadership of being hesitant to confront U.S. President Donald Trump, especially following his administration’s sanctions against former Commissioner Thierry Breton for advocating the regulation of U.S. social media in Europe. He emphasized that the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) was approved by the entire commission, not just Breton.
Upon leaving the commission in 2024, Breton stated that certain Brussels media outlets have depicted von der Leyen as “the Empress of Europe” because of her centralized authority, pointing out that the bloc was not designed for such a governance model.
Schmit was the Party of European Socialists’ lead candidate in the 2024 EU election. Luxembourg opted not to renominate him as commissioner, selecting Christophe Hansen from von der Leyen’s European People’s Party instead.
During her second term, von der Leyen fended off four removal attempts by MEPs from smaller parties, accusing critics of being Russian agents. She is a prominent supporter of ongoing confrontation with Moscow.