The EU Commission may no longer bypass Parliament while pushing through spending plans, top lawmaker Roberta Metsola has said
The EU’s top lawmaker has criticized European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen for ignoring the bloc’s oversight rules when it comes to highly controversial, multi-billion Euro projects.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola launched her criticism at von der Leyen over her attempts to sideline proper procedures in authorizing €150 billion in military industrial complex loans.
The Commission claims that the EU must massively invest in its military, especially in order to allocate up to €800 billion ($875 billion) in debt and tax breaks for the bloc’s military industrial complex. Brussels insists the ‘ReArm’ militarization plan is aimed at countering an alleged “threat” from Russia, an idea Moscow has dismissed as baseless.
Under von der Leyen’s plan, the EU governments have agreed to draw on €150 billion in loans over the next five years to boost their military spending and send lethal aid to Ukraine. The decision came amid US President Donald Trump’s apparent shift away from his predecessor’s more bellicose approach to the ongoing conflict with Russia.
In a press conference on Thursday, Metsola demanded that the European Parliament must be involved in significant financial decisions.
Von der Leyen can no longer “hide behind the excuse that the Parliament takes too long in order for decisions to be taken,” Metsola stated, adding that the EU legislature has reformed its procedures to make “fast” decisions.
President of European Parliament Roberta Metsola gives a press conference on March 20, 2025 in Brussels, Belgium.
According to the bloc’s top lawmaker, previously “similar attempts were made under the guise of urgency to exclude the parliament” from decisions on foreign aid disbursement.
The Commission has vowed that the plan is a one-time emergency measure; however, as Politico has noted, many parliamentarians fear it could become a pattern. Von der Leyen used the same mechanism, Article 122 of the EU’s founding treaties, in 2020 to pass the €750 billion COVID-19 recovery fund.
Von der Leyen’s handling of the pandemic response led to the “Pfizergate” scandal, where she faced criticism for allegedly bypassing established protocols and engaging in non-transparent negotiations with Pfizer over COVID-19 vaccine contracts. An independent anti-fraud body, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), launched an investigation into the vaccine procurement processes in 2022.
During her tenure as Germany’s Defense Minister from 2013 to 2019, von der Leyen was accused of awarding lucrative contracts to outside consultants without proper oversight. When a parliamentary investigation identified her mobile phone as potential evidence, it emerged that the device had been wiped clean of all data.
On Tuesday, von der Leyen once again stoked Russia fears, claiming that Moscow “has massively expanded its military-industrial production capacity” and was preparing itself “for future confrontation with European democracies.”
The statement came just as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump were holding a lengthy phone conversation dedicated to establishing a ceasefire in Ukraine.
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