Ursula von der Leyen | The guardian of EU’s strategic autonomy 

The European bureaucrat has emerged as a personable wartime chief who leads the bloc from the front against Russian aggression 

In the second week of April, soon after the Istanbul peace talks between Ukraine and Russia broke down amid reports of the ‘Bucha massacre’ — an alleged war crime involving abuse and killing of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (63) became one of the first European leaders to visit the Ukrainian city. After seeing the bodies exhumed from a mass grave, she condemned “Russian cruelty” and vowed to speed up Ukraine’s membership of the EU — part of a long pattern of visits, statements and tweets through which she has gradually positioned herself as the preeminent guardian of Europe’s strategic autonomy in the face of Russian geopolitical overreach.

On May 4, she proposed a phase-out of all Russian crude oil imports within six months and of refined petroleum products by the end of the year. It is the EU’s toughest measure yet against Russia. The objective here is not merely to stop the flow of Russian oil into Europe but goes much farther — to prevent Russia from selling the oil meant for Europe to other, non-European markets.

As Ms. von der Leyen elaborated in her address to European legislators, the new ban would also prohibit any firm with a base in the EU from offering “technical assistance, brokering services, financing or financial assistance... transport, including ship-to-ship transfers, to third countries” for crude and petroleum products that originate in Russia. Financing, insurance and shipping of global oil is mostly controlled by European firms. So if these measures — which require the consent of all the 27 member states — get passed, they could throttle Russian attempts to reroute its crude to other markets in Asia. And if Russia struggles to find alternative buyers, it will be forced to roll back production, which, in turn, will hit revenues and weaken its war machine.

Against a background of Russia ‘weaponising’ Europe’s dependence on its energy supplies, Ms. von der Leyen’s initiative seeks to turn the tables by ‘weaponising’ Russian dependence on oil revenues. The move is seen as a befitting counter to Russia cutting off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, and with her proposal, Ms. von der Leyen may have stolen the thunder from U.S./NATO in retaliatory measures against Russia. This is unusual.

Of the four major stakeholders in the conflict — Russia, Ukraine, the U.S./NATO, and the EU — Russia and Ukraine have found high voltage personifications in Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, respectively. Popular discourse is replete with parallels likening Mr. Putin to Hitler and Mr. Zelensky’s bravado to Winston Churchill’s wartime leadership. U.S. President Joe Biden, many say, lacks the charisma to embody the West’s crusade in defense of the “rules-based international order”. It would now appear that in Ms. von der Leyen, Europe has found a personable wartime chief who leads from the front and is not afraid to venture into unknown territory. But then, as her critics never tire of pointing out, there is also no getting away from the fact that she is, all said and done, an unelected functionary of the EU.

The President of the EC is not directly elected by EU citizens or their representatives (Members of European Parliament) but nominated by the European Council and approved by the European Parliament. In the case of Ms. von der Leyen, it has been widely reported that her appointment, in July 2019, was the outcome of a ‘backroom deal’ between the heavyweights of the European Council, France and Germany, brokered by Donald Tusk, the then European Council President. When she eventually took charge as the EC’s first ever woman President on December 1, 2019, it was a triumph that not many would have expected, given her political trajectory up to that point.

In one sense, it could be said that Ms. von der Leyen was born for her current job. She, after all, grew up in Brussels, the seat of the EU bureaucracy, and attended the elite European School. Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was himself a European Commission civil servant who would go on to have a successful political career in Germany, serving as Minister President of Lower Saxony province. But Ms. von der Leyen, who studied economics at the London School of Economics before switching to medicine, seems to have followed her instincts rather than work strictly toward pre-decided career goals.