European Union

On 18 February, the Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) will hold an exchange of views with Robert DE GROOT, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), on the Bank’s role in strengthening European defence. This discussion is particularly timely after the recent informal European Council retreat discussions on the need to enhance the financing of European Defence. ...
SEDE Members will also have an exchange of views with Marcos PERESTRELLO, President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA). This item will be held jointly with the Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (DNAT).
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

After 14 years of Conservative rule, many of us longed for real change – a fresh start, a true alternative to austerity, inequality, and broken promises.

But now that Labour is in government, it doesn’t feel like Labour at all. It feels more Tory.

And I’m not the only one saying this. Many Labour voters, supporters, and even Labour MPs are openly questioning the party’s direction.

Just look at Labour’s policies since taking office – many wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Conservative government of just a year ago.

So, let’s examine how a more traditional Labour government might have tackled these issues differently.

IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEES

– Current Labour Policy: Banning UK citizenship for refugees arriving via ‘dangerous routes’.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: A humane, fair approach – establishing safe and legal routes for asylum seekers, investing in faster processing systems, and working with international partners to manage migration effectively.

Instead of punishing refugees, Labour could crack down on traffickers and exploitative employers.

WINTER FUEL ALLOWANCE CUTS

– Current Labour Policy: Removing the Winter Fuel Allowance from most pensioners to save £1.5 billion.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Instead of cutting support, Labour could increase winter assistance, funded by a windfall tax on energy companies’ record profits.

NHS RECRUITMENT AND MIGRANT DOCTORS

– Current Labour Policy: Criticising NHS reliance on overseas doctors, implying a need for more UK-based recruitment.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Instead of blaming NHS bosses, Labour should invest in training more UK doctors and nurses while improving pay and conditions to retain existing staff.

A Labour government should welcome migrant healthcare workers, ensuring they receive fair pay and working conditions.

BENEFIT CLAIMANTS AND BANK ACCOUNT MONITORING

– Current Labour Policy: Labour plans to monitor bank accounts of benefit claimants to detect fraud.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Instead of targeting the poorest, Labour could focus on corporate tax evasion, which costs the UK billions more than benefit fraud.

A fair benefits system should be supportive, not punitive.

TAXATION AND FISCAL POLICY

– Current Labour Policy: Large National Insurance tax hikes, impacting workers and businesses.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Tax wealth, not work – higher taxes on corporations, high earners, and windfall profits, instead of squeezing working people.

A progressive tax system could fund public services without burdening low- and middle-income earners.

INHERITANCE TAX ON FARMS

– Current Labour Policy: Removing inheritance tax exemptions for farms worth over £1 million.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Instead of a blanket tax increase, Labour could target corporate farms and landowners, while protecting small family farms from financial hardship.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES

– Current Labour Policy: Labour has launched Great British Energy (GBE), a publicly owned clean energy company, and pledged home insulation improvements via the Warm Homes Plan.

However, green investment funding has been cut from £28bn to £14bn, and Labour is expanding nuclear power. Keir Starmer has also indicated he wants to go-ahead with a giant new oilfield, Rosebank off Shetland, continuing Conservative energy policies.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Labour should reverse green investment cuts, expand public ownership of renewable energy, and prioritise fast-deploying renewables over costly and environmentally unfriendly nuclear projects and the Rosebank oilfield.

LAW AND ORDER POLICIES

– Current Labour Policy: More police recruitment and expanded use of facial recognition surveillance.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Tackle the root causes of crime – invest in youth services, education, and job creation.

Instead of increased surveillance, Labour should prioritise community policing and police accountability.

PUBLIC SECTOR PAY AND SERVICES

– Current Labour Policy: Labour has announced above-inflation pay rises for some public sector workers, including 5.5% for NHS staff and a 22% pay rise for junior doctors over two years.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: While better than nothing, true Labour values would ensure all public sector wages rise in line with inflation – funded by progressive taxation, not spending cuts elsewhere.

EDUCATION REFORMS

– Current Labour Policy: Labour plans to recruit 6,500 new teachers, modernise the curriculum, and ensure all new teachers are qualified.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: All well and good, but Labour should also increase school funding, reduce class sizes, and abolish tuition fees for higher education.

Rather than focusing on standardisation, Labour should prioritise investment and support to help all students succeed.

BREXIT – THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

– Current Labour Policy: Labour rules out rejoining the EU, Single Market, or customs union, despite Brexit’s role in low growth, inflation, and workforce shortages – contributing to the £22bn economic “black hole”.

– Traditional Labour Alternative: Every Labour Prime Minister since 1957 has supported EU membership – except Keir Starmer.

Labour should face reality. If Starmer started making the case for rejoining, Labour could boost economic growth and help to secure a second term.

A MORE TRADITIONAL LABOUR APPROACH

A Labour government true to its values would:

Increase taxes on wealth and corporations, not on workers.
Invest in public services instead of cutting support.
Ensure a humane, fair approach to refugees and benefits claimants.
Properly fund public sector pay and green investment.
Tackle corporate tax avoidance instead of bank surveillance on the poor.
Support EU membership, just like every Labour Prime Minister before Starmer.

Instead, Starmer’s Labour is adopting fiscally conservative, tougher-on-migrants, tougher-on-welfare policies while avoiding the Brexit debate – mirroring recent Tory approaches.

This isn’t New Labour. This isn’t even true Labour.

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• Related video: Keir Starmer stood for the Labour leadership promoting migration and Free Movement of People – but once he became leader, changed his mind.



• Related article: Labour’s reform-style rhetoric against migration simply won’t work

 

The post New Labour? This isn’t even true Labour appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

On 18 February, SEDE organises a public hearing on 'Hybrid War: protection of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea' from 11.30 to 13.00hrs in Brussels (room SPINELLI 3G2). Subsea infrastructure, such as communication cables and energy pipelines, serves as the global nervous system, simultaneously transporting critical energy resources across continents and enabling communication across the world. ...

These critical infrastructures are increasingly the target of hybrid activities by malign actors, threatening the security and supply of communication and energy. Recent incidents in the Baltic Sea have highlighted the vulnerabilities of subsea infrastructure. Therefore, three experts will brief the SEDE Committee to explore the technical and geopolitical ramifications of sabotage and other disruptions to our subsea infrastructure, and to discuss possible options for response and improving resilience to such actions.

Programme
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

The update will notably require that VAT be paid for services provided through online platforms, putting an end to an unfair distortion of competition. It will also fight VAT fraud.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Subcommittee on Tax Matters

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

The update will notably require that VAT be paid for services provided through online platforms, putting an end to an unfair distortion of competition. It will also fight VAT fraud.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Subcommittee on Tax Matters

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

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Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

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Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On Tuesday, the Chair of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, addressed a formal sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On Tuesday, the Chair of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, addressed a formal sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

I support the European Union, believing it has been a force for good. However, it is far from perfect, and transparency issues continue to cast doubt on its leadership.

I want the UK to rejoin the EU because I believe that to be in Britain’s – and Europe’s – best interests.

But that doesn’t mean to say I am starry-eyed about the EU, or more pertinently, the different people who are elected from time to time to run it (yes, contrary to popular mythology, they are elected).

The latest controversy involving European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen raises serious questions about accountability.

Investigative journalist Alexander Fanta reported in The Guardian that von der Leyen has gone to court to prevent the release of personal messages exchanged with Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, during critical Covid vaccine negotiations in 2021.

These messages could shed light on how the EU secured a €21.5bn (£17.9bn) deal for up to 1.8 billion Pfizer doses – raising concerns over pricing, procurement strategy, and whether millions of doses were wasted.

At the time, the EU was under immense pressure to secure vaccines, lagging behind the UK and Israel.

Amid production issues with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, it’s claimed that von der Leyen took personal charge of negotiations, reportedly leveraging direct text exchanges with Bourla, but this is strongly denied by the European Commission.

However, when Fanta filed an access request under the EU’s freedom of information law, the Commission refused, arguing that texts are “short-lived” and not subject to disclosure rules.

The secrecy surrounding these exchanges has led to a legal battle.

The New York Times and journalist Matina Stevis-Gridneff have also filed lawsuits in the European Court of Justice seeking access.

The EU’s legal team claims the texts are not “substantive” while simultaneously admitting they have never reviewed them – relying instead on von der Leyen’s staff assurances.

One exasperated judge even called the Commission’s testimony “bizarre.”

This lack of transparency extends beyond vaccine procurement.

The EU’s unprecedented €723bn (£600bn) Covid recovery fund, meant to boost digital and climate investments, remains largely unaccounted for.

When Fanta’s colleagues at ‘Follow the Money’ requested details, only the top 100 recipients per country were disclosed, leaving billions in spending unexplained.

Allegations of fraud linked to these funds have since emerged, with Greek authorities investigating €2.5bn in suspected misuse and Italian police probing a €600m fraud case.

Fanta argues that secrecy is embedded in the EU’s administrative culture. It is claimed that under von der Leyen, this has worsened, with key documents withheld for political reasons.

Outgoing European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has accused “powerful consiglieri” in von der Leyen’s cabinet of blocking crucial disclosures.

Despite her public stance against authoritarianism, von der Leyen’s resistance to scrutiny undermines democratic accountability.

Fanta warns that limiting transparency only strengthens the arguments of leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who use secrecy to justify their own undemocratic practices.

The ongoing court case may set new limits on von der Leyen’s secrecy, but real change requires sustained pressure from media, civil society, and the European Parliament.

Public trust depends on transparency – leaders must be held accountable, even when it makes governing, or texting, more complicated.

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I have now received a response from Stefan de Keersmaecker, Deputy Chief Spokesperson of the European Commission:

Many thanks for your message. This is what we can share with you:

The President had exchanges with the CEO of Pfizer, as she generally had with CEOs of other companies with a view to attracting companies’ interest to engage with the EU for the delivery of vaccines in accordance with the objectives and procedures of the EU’s COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy.

The President was not involved in negotiations of contracts.

There was a clear and transparent process in place for such negotiations. The EU Vaccine Strategy was a joint strategy: all contracts with vaccine developers had been negotiated jointly by the Commission and the Member States, taking into account vaccine needs of all EU countries.

Practically speaking, the negotiations were done by a negotiation team consisting of representatives of the Commission and of several Member States.

This team reported on a regular basis to a Steering Board, consisting of representatives of the Commission and all Member States. The role of this board was to set the mandate for the negotiators, identify the needs and steer the negotiations.

Before each vaccine contract was concluded, it was submitted to the steering board.  Member States were given the opportunity to opt out from the contract.

So all Member States are fully aware of all contractual terms and conditions, including on deliveries, that they negotiated with the companies.

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The post What is EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, hiding? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Plenary adopted recommendations to the European Central Bank on Tuesday, following a debate on its priorities and activities with President Christine Lagarde on Monday.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Plenary adopted recommendations to the European Central Bank on Tuesday, following a debate on its priorities and activities with President Christine Lagarde on Monday.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

56 EU vessels will be able to fish tuna and related species during the next five years in Cabo Verde’s waters, under an updated fisheries deal.
Committee on Fisheries

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

56 EU vessels will be able to fish tuna and related species during the next five years in Cabo Verde’s waters, under an updated fisheries deal.
Committee on Fisheries

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Today, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights will hold a press conference in Strasbourg, after President Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC.
Subcommittee on Human Rights

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Today, the Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights will hold a press conference in Strasbourg, after President Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC.
Subcommittee on Human Rights

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Statement of the Conference of Presidents on continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression.

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Statement of the Conference of Presidents on continuing the unwavering EU support for Ukraine, after three years of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression.

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

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Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP