The ‘Geopolitical Commission’: An End of Term Review

This article reflects on the origins and evolution of the ‘geopolitical Commission’. It discusses the Commission President’s personal style and entrepreneurship, the contingency that allowed for the concept’s expansion and the institutional conditions that were propitious to von der Leyen’s success. It concludes with a reflection on possible future developments. The article makes three main arguments. The first is that although the preceding Commission was styled as a ‘political Commission’, with mainly domestic policy priorities, the Juncker Commission took important steps that anticipated and laid the foundations for the ‘geopolitical Commission’. The second argument is that the von der Leyen Commission built on her predecessor’s legacy, but also added new geopolitical elements, such as the reorientation of EU development policy through the ‘Global Gateway’, a ‘Global Human Rights Sanctions regime’ and working for peace and justice in the Middle East. The third argument is that the Commission’s success can be attributed to a combination of the experience and the energetic personal style of the President herself, a series of external challenges that put the EU into permanent crisis mode from early 2020 and the readiness of other key figures and institutions to allow the Commission President to assume a leadership role.