In a speech to the European Parliament on July 18, 2024, the President of the European Commission, Germany's Ursula von der Leyen, an outspoken environmentalist, set out her program for its next five years. Here are some of the salient aspects of her proposal, strictly in line with her previous term of office.

1. The objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions -- 90% reduction by 2040, 100% by 2050 - is maintained. By definition, this reduction structures and determines the whole of the Commission's program, because all human activity -- industrial, commercial and private -- emits greenhouse gases. In fact, in a program document published by the Commission in February 2024, already under the aegis of von der Leyen, are plans to invest 1.5 trillion euros per year in decarbonizing the European Union, and to this end take authoritarian measures in all areas of human activity. The amount is equivalent to 10% of Europe's GDP -- every year. Apparently this policy is the uncompromising model found in every party in Germany, but apart from a war effort, there is no objective of any kind that has ever required the diversion of 10% of a continent's GDP by political decree.

2. European funds, which are distributed to EU member states in various ways, will henceforth be "conditional on respect for the rule of law". By the rule of law, the EU means a very specific and at the same time vague notion, enabling it to disqualify regimes and personalities with which it disagrees, principally but not exclusively, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary.

   In other words, any deviation from the EU's ideological line, in any area, will be subject to financial sanctions - as is already happening with Hungary. This new direction for the EU will lead to the ideology of Western Europe being imposed on Eastern Europe: "open borders", environmentalism, the fight against "hate" -- but only "hate" from the right of the political spectrum. For example, far-left MEP Rima Hassan frequently issues direct threats against colleagues who don't share her hatred of Israel, without any consequences. The countries of Eastern Europe are the main beneficiaries of EU funds. It remains to be seen whether Eastern Europe will be taken in.