EU Scream

Jacques Delors passed away this week. He was the longest serving president of the EU executive, the European Commission. But what makes Delors such a towering figure was his headlong rush to unify the continent. Monetary union. Free movement. The Single Market. Delors is the preeminent architect of the modern European project. Fast forward three decades and that architecture is an acute concern for admirers of Delors. Among them is the well-known liberal lawmaker Sophie in ‘t Veld. Sophie has a lot to say about how the present-day Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen has grown timid in the face of pressures from national governments. Sophie also sees how those weaknesses have helped extremists like Viktor Orbán tighten their grip on power. In this year-end news review, Sophie talks about von der Leyen's appeasement of Orban; the mess made by Brussels at the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war; and the dangers Geert Wilders poses for Europe. You may not agree with all of Sophie's views about how the answers to EU ailments amount to, well, more Europe. But her experience and passion and eloquence mean her warnings about the dangers of our political moment cannot be ignored. We are, says Sophie, "sleepwalking" into a new era of autocracy and repression. As for Sophie herself, she plans to run for a fifth term as a member of the European Parliament. Her decision has been welcomed by those who robustly support democracy and want more oversight of the EU by elected lawmakers. However, she will run from Belgium, not Holland, and as part of a new pan-European movement called Volt, instead of D66, the party that's long been her home. It's time for a change. Volt, says Sophie, is not so subject to the cliquishness found in some political groups, nor is it beholden to those EU decision-makers that continue to accommodate Europe's autocrats and kleptocrats.