Ursula von der Leyen adopted a signature style for doing business in her first five years as president of the European Commission: Rely on a small team of trusted officials and informal talks if needed to get things done.
Enforcing environmental law has been no exception.
Under von der Leyen, the EU executive has opened 559 legal proceedings over environmental law violations against EU countries since Dec. 1, 2019. That’s the lowest number in two decades, trailing her predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker, who pursued 645 cases, and José Manuel Barroso, who initiated 1,314 cases during his first term as Commission president and 845 in his second mandate.
Instead, according to the Commission, they’ve opted for a “smart enforcement” approach to ensuring countries comply with legal environmental requirements such as limits on air pollution or minimum protections for threatened species. This means more support for implementing laws in the first place and, more controversially, favoring informal dialogue over potential court battles when things go awry.
