On 1 November, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen arrived in the UK to attend Rishi Sunak’s AI Safety Summit. She stood alongside world leaders from countries including Britain, US and China and joined them in signing the Bletchley Declaration, which calls for global cooperation on managing AI development. But does von der Leyen have the right to sign any document in her role? In whose names does she sign?
Von der Leyen carries no democratic mandate. She is not elected. She was put forward for her current role in closed-door meetings by bureaucrats. She does not represent any populace. In fact, she is not even an elected member of the European Parliament. EU member states all have their own elected domestic governments to represent their interests on the world stage.
Von der Leyen does not consult member states or their electorates before adopting policy positions or signing statements on behalf of the EU like the Bletchley Declaration. In this case, the document she signed was a relatively inoffensive promise to collaborate with other countries on sensible AI development. But this is far from the first time the European Commission has behaved as if it speaks for Europe without first ensuring it is fairly representing the will of Europe’s populations.
As she did at the AI Safety Summit, von der Leyen often appears at international meetings alongside elected heads of government, sometimes accompanied by European Council president Charles Michel (also unelected) appearing to represent Europe. From UN events like the COP climate conferences to G7 or World Health Organisation (WHO) summits, Brussels bureaucrats are often invited to partake in international gatherings where the global political direction of travel is set.
This month, the WHO will host another such summit. COP10, a ‘tobacco control’ conference, will see delegates from around the world discuss how best to tax and regulate cigarettes, vapes, and other nicotine products. Leaked documents suggest the EU will adopt a hardline approach, pushing for harsher restrictions on products like electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches, even though they have been shown to be much lower-risk than cigarettes and an invaluable tool for helping smokers quit.
More concerning than the nitty-gritty of the science and policy is the precedent it sets. Regulating nicotine products should be for national governments to decide. What right does the EU have to supersede them? Can we always be sure Brussels has Europeans’ best interests in mind? For example, the EU has recently boasted about creating “the world’s first comprehensive AI law” and joined forces with Lina Khan, the activist anti-tech bureaucrat in the US who is currently suing Amazon, to take on ‘big tech’.
Can Ursula von der Leyen honestly say that doing things like this is just part and parcel of pursuing the ‘European project’ and bringing EU nations closer together, which is arguably why her position exists? Or is she instead LARPing as a world leader, getting a kick out of getting attention from Washington forcing Apple to redesign its chargers?
When Europe wasn’t looking, Brussels quietly granted itself extraordinary and unprecedented political power. By pertaining to speak on behalf of the 27 EU member states at key international summits, Ursula von der Leyen’s words now carry the weight of almost half a billion people and a collective economy worth US$16 trillion, all without the hassle of democratic consent. The only other organisation in the world where unelected bureaucrats have this much power and appear to speak on behalf of a populace and an economy that size is the Chinese Communist Party.
Undemocratic governance has become integral to the way Brussels does business. The fundamentals of the European project – making EU nations freer and more prosperous – are as worthwhile as ever. Unfortunately, Brussels seems to have forgotten about its mission and instead become drunk on power. That risks stoking division and driving European countries further apart rather than bringing them together.
Ursula von der Leyen and the thousands of other top-ranking Eurocrats should put their personal political ambitions aside and return to doing what is best for the continent. If they don’t, it is the people of Europe who will lose out.
Jason Reed is a policy writer for media outlets around the world. He tweets @JasonReed624