Von der Leyen accused of overreach

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Good morning. It's Monday, March 9, and this is the Brussels Public Podcast.

The vibe in Brussels today is irritated. At least that's the feeling we're getting from the

diplomats, EU officials, and lawmakers we've spoken to over the past week, who are frustrated

by what they describe as an overreach by European Commission President Ursula von Delayen

in response to the war in Iran. Also on the pod, ministers are sitting down in Brussels to

discuss the continent's housing crisis, and a slew of public transport hiccups in Brussels

could make life more difficult for those who commute. But what else is new?

With me today, it's Nick Vinnico, a political chief foreign affairs correspondent.

Hey Nick, how's your weekend been? It's been good so far. I'm back in the gym, Zoya, so watch out.

Oh, and it's not even a New Year's resolution. I love that. New spring cleaning for the body. Well done.

We're getting ready for the summer. The summer board. It's happened in guys.

I was moving all weekend, Nick, so I feel like that's almost as good as going to the gym.

That's what I keep telling myself. You got your workout in. That's what counts.

All right, Nick, let's get to our first story today. The Iran conflict is entering its second week,

and last night we actually heard there's a new Iranian Supreme Leader.

It's much taba Khmerni, the son of Ali Khmerni, who was killed by the US and

Israel in their strikes at the start of the war. And now the US and Israel have said that actually

this guy isn't going to last very long either because he is a priority target in this war as well.

Meemot in the EU, the European Council President Antonio Costa,

together with Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission President, they're convening a video

conference with leaders from Middle Eastern countries on the war. Nick, what are we going to expect

to come out of that? I think we're going to see more expressions of solidarity of support for

the Middle Eastern countries. Let's remember that we have a defense cooperation agreements between

a lot of EU states and the Gulf states, and there's an overarching agreement of cooperation

between the EU and the GCC, the Gulf Cooperation Council. So just kind of more support. And there

is a pressing issue on the table, which is EU citizens stuck in those countries and discussions

about how to get them back to their homes in the EU. Yeah, and that's something that the EU has

been quite closely focused on. But there has also been a little bit of freelancing perhaps in the

eyes of certain diplomats from the Commission President von der Leyen. Nick, you've got a story out

today about the irritation that some EU governments are feeling over how she has approached the conflict.

What have you found out? Well, we've had discussions with many diplomats, EU officials,

lawmakers from small countries and large countries, and essentially what we're getting is a sense of

frustration concern about what a lot of people describe as overreach by the Commission President.

They refer a lot to her activity during the Iran crisis, holding a flurry of calls with

Gulf leaders over the weekend. But it also goes further than that. It's also her decision to send

a Commissioner to the Board of Peace. It's also what some countries see as a kind of

activist stance from the Commission on enlarging the EU. And they're saying, well, you know,

this really is not her mandate to conduct foreign policy on behalf of the EU states. We need to have

a bit of a reckoning about who does what in the EU. Well, so this is the question, you know,

that idea of whose mandate is it anyway? Because this would normally be the purview of the EU's

high representative. That's Kaya Kallas. She is the EU's top diplomat. She should be involved

in this quite heavily. And on other issues, Antonia Koshra, the Council President would normally

be the person who would be in the lead. So I think there is a little bit of a sense that

Ursula von der Leyen is doing a few extra jobs, not just as Commission Chief. And you mentioned

the Board of Peace. That was Donald Trump's kind of initiative where he wanted to get together

of various parties, interested stakeholders, and decide the future of Gaza's Palestinians.

And that was the event that Dubrovka Schweitzer attended. And she was an observer, but also there

was some questions raised about what that actually means. Exactly. And you know, we've reported a lot

about some of the frustrations that have been around Kaya Kallas' performance. What's really

interesting is to see the member states now kind of rallying behind Kaya Kallas and saying,

we have a method for conducting foreign policy. It is slow. It's painstaking. It's consensus among

27 member states. But that's Kaya Kallas' job to convene those ministers and to get those

common positions. And they did that last Sunday at the start of the U.S. Israel campaign against

Iran. And they did come up with against expectations shared position. And what they don't understand

is what von der Leyen is doing, having these meetings and having these phone calls with leaders

and say, well, what exactly is she promising them? And on whose behalf is she's taking positions?

She had one position, which was controversial last week, where she talked about a transition

in Iran that was taken as a sort of tacit endorsement of regime change. And you have a lot of

member countries saying, hold on. That is not an EU position. That is not a consensus position

agreed by all the member states. When you say such things, who are you speaking on behalf of? And

there isn't really a great answer to that question. Yeah. And there's also the question of EU

accession for new member countries. You and I have both been reporting on this quite

significantly over the past few months. And there is this kind of push to open the EU to new members

now, because there hasn't been a new member since 2013, since Croatia joined. So certainly,

that is something that Oslo von der Leyen and her commission have been pushing for. But there is

this question of like, okay, is she pushing too fast and too hard for some of these more conservative

member countries who want a bit more time to think things through? So that has also annoyed

capitals. Absolutely. And you know, you reported on it. We reported on it. There was a dinner last

week that was a bit of a airing of kind of a lot of these issues, particularly on enlargement.

And one thing that is a little bit unfortunate from all that is the perception that the member states

have said they don't want Ukraine to come in as fast as the commission was saying. Now,

I've been speaking to some council folks and different diplomats and saying, well, that's an

unfortunate consequence of the commission just kind of moving too fast and floating too many

options. We do want Ukraine inside the union. We're even ready to conclude negotiations with them

in 2027. But the idea of them becoming a full member state in 2027 is just not going to fly

with anyone. And you know, it wasn't helpful that the commission seemed to be perhaps floating

that option via some channels. Yeah. Though I will say Nick that in my reporting that I did the big

story that kind of kicked I think some of this conversation off, the commission was not indicating

and the options being considered. It wasn't necessarily saying that it was talking about full

membership for Ukraine. It was talking about this reverse enlargement idea where it would be

some semblance of membership with limited benefits. But in any case, look, there's going to be a

very interesting meeting today. It's the annual ambassador's conference that happens in Brussels.

And that's going to be this morning actually kicks off this morning and Kayakalis that you use

top diplomat plus us on the line are both slated to speak this morning as well as Roberto

Matsola, the parliament president. So I think that'll be a really interesting one for us to watch.

Absolutely. All these tensions will be in the background on the sidelines of that conference.

There's also the question of resources. People feel that the EAS, the external action services

being downgraded, having some of its resources taken away. So that's going to be another theme

at this ambassador's conference this morning.

Okay, onto our second story today. Ministers are sitting down in Brussels for an informal

discussion on the housing crisis. And this is a topic close to our heart because I

spit this weekend moving. And let me tell you, I do not love the amount of rent I'm going to need

to be paying. So definitely it's something that's hitting close to home for me.

On Tuesday, then there's going to be a debate scheduled in the European parliament where

MEPs are going to discuss ideas that they've got for solving the problem. But it's a crisis,

there hasn't crisis is something that is being felt not just in the EU. It's actually we're finding

those echoes of that crisis elsewhere in the US, in Australia, elsewhere. So it is a big one.

Nick, what is this all about? What is the EU's idea for how to solve this?

Yeah, and you know, this is usually not an EU competence. This is usually not something that EU

worries about it. I think the reason that we're seeing such mobilization is because this is a

huge political driver. It seems to be behind so many trends with the far right and fringe groups

being more popular is because of cost of living and of course lack of affordable housing.

So last year, housing commissioner Dan Jorgensen presented the block's first ever affordable housing

plan. And he warned at the time, I'm respectfully telling decision makers all over Europe,

either they take the housing problem seriously or they accept they'll have to hand over power

to populists making the connection right there. It's fueling support for the far right and far left.

And so I know you've got some really interesting statistics about just how bad things are.

Yeah, we've been doing little research here at the Brussels Playbook Podcast.

We had a look at it and there are some really shocking stats around housing affordability

around Europe. So firstly, between 2010 and the second quarter of 2025, house prices in the EU

increased by 60% and rents by 29%. And if you look at a place like Lisbon, for instance,

Nick, you really get a sense of just how bad things are. So it's a question of how much

income is spent on rent and in places like Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, family spend over 70%

of their income on rent. In Lisbon, it's 116% Nick. That's higher rents than average salaries.

It's it's quite an intense problem. That doesn't add up and I'm not a math major, but it doesn't

work. I don't think it takes mathematics to figure out that 116% is too many percent.

Absolutely. And the problem is really significant in Brussels too. So in the EU capital,

average rents now exceed 1300 euro per month for apartments and 900 euro per month for studios.

So that's a huge amount for someone who for instance needs to move to Brussels for a stagiar

roll or a blue book training to pay. Or as an EU chief correspondent.

Yeah, I haven't come to groups with it just how high my rent is yet because I haven't had to pay it

yet, but I'm looking forward to that shoe dropping. All right, Nick. Well, there's a few things that

are on the agenda in terms of how to fix this problem. There's ideas about tracking speculation

in the housing market. There's ideas about giving regional and local governments tools to reign

in short term rentals, which a lot of people say contribute to housing shortages. And you know,

there's all sorts of things in the toolbox. But as you say, this is kind of uncharted

territory for the EU. Indeed. Hey, Nick, how do you get to work? I walk usually unless I'm very

late, in which case it's an e-scooter. Well, it's good news for you bad news for me because I like

to take the bus. You know, there's been this revamp of the human roundabout that's been happening.

The construction is set to finally wrap up in the autumn. Thank God, because let me tell you,

walking through there is a bit of a nightmare at the moment. But there's a catch, of course,

there's a catch. The way that they've redesigned the roundabout, it favors walking and cycling.

But that means it's not going to be accessible for buses. So the deviations on the various bus

routes are actually here to stay forever, Nick. Terrible news for bus riders, or is it? Well,

I don't know. It's a terrible news for me because I am directionally challenged. And every time

the bus goes a different direction to what Google tells me it's meant to go, I panic and

think that I have no idea how I'm going to get anywhere. But actually, that's the only thing

that's happening, Nick, because you know there was meant to be this beautiful steel canopy show

stopper at the roundabout that they were going to spend 13 million euro on. I was very excited about

that. What happened? Well, turns out, 13 million is just a few too many million for a beautiful

steel canopy because that's on the chopping block, Nick. It's gone. It's out. It's dead. No more steel

canopy. That is a bummer. I do remember something about the Brussels government running out of money

and having to ask the commission to top it up. I guess that money didn't come through from

the commission. Maybe it didn't come through, or maybe they just decided there were better ways

of using 13 million euro than a steel canopy, Nick. All right, but that's not all. We've got some

other bummer transportation news for all of our listeners. Firstly, there's a big train strike that

kicked off last night. And basically, it's happening all the way through to Wednesday. So if you're

a train traveler and you're thinking about commuting, well, you'd best seek alternative routes.

Maybe a scooja. I don't know how far a scooter is going to take you, Nick. What's the furthest

you've ever traveled on a scooter? Well, it kind of stops abruptly once you get out of city limits.

So I've discovered that a few times. I've taken it to the furthest reach of mankind, basically,

as far as you can take it. Tavarin. Tavarin, essentially. The limits of the known universe.

Well, that's going to not be an option then. So those folks who catch the trains, beware,

not to mention people on Thursday. It's a full-on general strike. So all public transport is

going to be affected then. But we'll remind you of that again later in the week.

All right, Nick. Well, we're almost done with today's episode. But before we go, I've been getting

some emails from listeners about a phrase I used the other day. It was, I'm not here to put socks

on a centipede. Apparently, it's an Aussie of them. Nick, do you know what it means?

Literally never heard that before in my life. I was just trying to say, I don't want to waste any

time because it would take a really long time to put socks on a centipede. Do you have a good

American or Swedish idiom that you love? Let's not split hairs. There's one in French,

which is, I can't say on this podcast, but is essentially the same meaning about doing a certain

act to fly? Oh, there's an Australian version. So I did the g-rated version of my idiom,

but there is an Australian version, which I suspect is exactly the same, but we use spiders,

because that's the Australianism of it all. Well, listen, I'd love to hear from our listeners.

What is your favorite idiom from home? Have you got a really good one? I just love idiom. So

any kind of cool, regional, non-translatable ones, please let me know. There's a great one in

Ukrainian that I quite love. It's don't put pasta on my ears, which is to say, don't try to

bamboozle me. That's a good one from a Ukrainian friends. All right, folks, well, leave us a voice note,

send us a text message on our WhatsApp number. That's in the show notes, as it always is.

Please do review us. That's how people know how to find us and that spreads the word about the

Brussels Bible podcast, and we'll speak to you tomorrow. Thanks for having me.

Socks on a centipede. Get out of here.

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