{"id":20988,"date":"2026-03-16T17:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/?p=20988"},"modified":"2026-03-16T17:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:16:28","slug":"von-der-leyens-denken-in-eigenbelang-is-een-gevaar-voor-alles-waar-europa-voor-staat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/von-der-leyens-denken-in-eigenbelang-is-een-gevaar-voor-alles-waar-europa-voor-staat\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen's self-interested thinking is a danger to everything Europe stands for"},"content":{"rendered":"

What does Europe stand for in the world? It is a question that seems increasingly and increasingly difficult to answer. The identity crisis our continent is caught up in is becoming increasingly visible in the foreign policy of European countries and EU institutions. Previously self-evident principles, such as protecting and upholding international law and promoting the global democratic rule of law, are proving fluid under the pressure of geopolitical chaos, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acting as\u00a0provisional low<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to her, international law is simply dead. With the biggest global players in autocratic hands, Von der Leyen argued, Europe cannot \u201csingle-handedly defend a system of order and rules\u201d. Europe, she said, needs to start thinking more from self-interest, rather than relying on the rules or alliances we used to take for granted. She is not alone: her German party colleague Merz\u00a0showed a similar sentiment<\/a>, and brand-new foreign minister Berendsen called international law \u2018not the only framework<\/a>\u2019 to look at the world.<\/p>\n

That that world order has changed horribly is flatly true. But Von der Leyen makes a crucial fallacy - a dangerous one, for all that Europe stands for. Protecting the international legal order and pursuing a common European foreign policy that strengthens and protects the democratic order worldwide is something more than just a\u00a0part\u00a0<\/em>of the European Union. It is a\u00a0raison d'\u00eatre\u00a0<\/em>of the EU, enshrined in the founding treaties. That letting go is something we must never allow.<\/p>\n

If the European Union accepts that we have devolved into a world order of the law of the jungle, the gate will be closed once and for all. In a world of pure\u00a0Realpolitik\u00a0<\/em>any act of aggression for geopolitical self-interest - without having to take into account \u2018pesky\u2019 constraints like human rights or state sovereignty - is legitimised. Smaller states will survive by grace of alliances based on their geopolitical surplus value, e.g. thanks to natural resources, but their lives will never be secure. Thus, we create a world where everyone constantly holds each other at gunpoint.<\/p>\n

Besides, a Europe that legitimises wars and acts geopolitically only from the point of view of defensive security soon ceases to be a democratic bastion. It is a victory for autocrats who are all too eager to make territorial claims to fuel nationalism, who in such a world have no reason to abide by any democratic conditions anymore; it is a victory for the Kremlin, which has been working for years to erode Europe's democratic identity from within.<\/p>\n

The European Union project only has a future if we hold fast at all costs to the foundations of democracy and international law on which our alliance was built. Of course, Europe must move with the realities of the world, but that means more international law, supported by new countries. Europe will have to refocus geopolitically, including by working to expand the UN Security Council to include the BRIC countries.<\/p>\n

And that it is possible, and that not all of Europe thinks like Von der Leyen, is proven by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez. With his active opposition to the war in Iran and the genocide in Gaza, he represents the future of Europe in this world - a future in which Europe has broken away from the Americans and stands on its own two feet, deeply rooted in the democratic values on which the Union was built. S\u00e1nchez gives us a glimpse of a much-needed optimism, of a Europe of intransigence, willfulness and ironclad interconnection.<\/p>\n

Now just hope the Spaniards are not that one little village...<\/p>\n

Jens Bosman is a Democracy & International Cooperation intern at the Max van der Stoel Foundation.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Waar staat Europa voor in de wereld? Het is een vraag die steeds en steeds moeilijker te beantwoorden lijkt. De identiteitscrisis waar ons continent in verzeild is geraakt wordt alsmaar zichtbaarder in de buitenlandpolitiek van Europese landen en EU-instituties. Voorheen vanzelfsprekend geachte principes, zoals het beschermen en naleven van het internationaal recht en het bevorderen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democracy","region-eu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20988"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20993,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20988\/revisions\/20993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}