Both Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the war in Iran have shown how dependent the EU still is on fossil fuels. This makes it all the more interesting to take a look on the implementation of the ‘European Green Deal’, which reflects Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition to make the EU the first climate-neutral continent. In the free-content article in the first issue of integration 2026, Michèle Knodt examines the Green Deal against the backdrop of increasingly unstable political majorities and a strong focus on industrial and competition policy.
In their article, Matthias Freise and Oliver Treib place the policy of cross-border cooperation in healthcare within the context of European policymaking, present current flagship projects and, finally, analyse the challenges facing cross-border cooperation.
Using a network analysis of the speeches made by members of both commissions under Ursula von der Leyen, Darius Ribbe and Carlotta Steimke examine how institutional changes reflect the shifting discourse on European security policy and identify the key security policy actors within the Commission.
In the forum section, Niklas Helwig examines the development of the office of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since 2009. He sees an office that is politically prominent but institutionally constrained.
This forum category also addresses competitiveness in Europe. Hanna Hottenrott, Roman Inderst, Eckhard Janeba, Klaus Schmidt, Achim Wambach and Christine Zulehner demonstrate how industrial policy can be linked to competition.
The European Green Deal Under Stress – Climate Governance, Industrial Policy and Political Fragmentation Beyond 2030
Michèle Knodt
This article analyses the European Green Deal as a transformation project under changing political and economic conditions. It advances the argument that the viability of EU climate governance beyond the 2030 horizon increasingly depends on implementation capacity, industrial policy priorities and fragmented political majorities. Drawing on an assessment of the revised National Energy and Climate Plans, the re-adjustment of the Green Deal through a more competitiveness-oriented industrial policy, and the negotiation of the EU’s 2040 climate target, the article shows how the character of EU climate policy is shifting. It argues that the growing flexibilisation of policy instruments and the expansion of political discretion may enhance short-term compromise-building, but at the same time facilitate the erosion of existing ambition levels and create new risks for coherence, credibility and the long-term achievement of EU climate objectives. The Green Deal thus emerges as a stress test for European climate governance in an increasingly volatile political environment.
Between the Logic of the Internal Market and the Welfare State: Challenges of Cross-border Health Cooperation in the European Union
Matthias Freise and Oliver Treib
Cross-border health policy is one of the European Union's least communitarised policy areas. The European treaties largely preclude legal harmonisation in this policy area. The organisation and financing of national health care systems remain the responsibility of the member states. Nevertheless, the EU has gained increasing influence in recent years, leveraging internal market rules and Art. 168(2) Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which obliges it to promote cooperation between member states in the field of health policy, particularly in border regions. Accordingly, the EU has been launching an increasing number of support and incentive programmes in this area. This article first places cross-border healthcare collaboration policies within the logics of European policy-making, then traces the genesis of these policies, illustrates a series of current flagship projects, and finally analyses the challenges that cross-border health collaboration continues to face.
Many Voices for European Security? Coordination and Convergence in European Commission Security Policy Speeches
Darius Ribbe and Carlotta Steimke
The European Union faces growing geopolitical challenges to its security architecture. We analyse the securitisation of policy issues by European Commissioners in 1,619 speeches given between 2024 and 2025. At the sentence level (n=98,940), we classify references to security frames using a zero-shot DeBERTa-v3 classifier and a BERTopic model. Further, we span co-occurrence networks of topics and Commissioners for the first and second Commission of Ursula von der Leyen to analyse how institutional changes coincide with changes in discourse. We show that Commissioners securitise a wider array of topics over time, while the networks remain highly centred around key actors of securitisation. Increasing similarity in how Commissioners frame security issues suggests a growing executive dominance in EU security communication and points to a shifting role of Commission leadership. Notably, Andrius Kubilius replaced Ursula von der Leyen as coordinator of the Commission’s security discourse.
A Geopolitical EU Without a Foreign Policy Centre? The Office of the High Representative Caught Between Geopolitical Pressure and Institutional Reform
Niklas Helwig
This contribution analyses the development of EU High Representative/Vice-President of the European Commission (HR/VP) in the geopolitical era. Three structural shifts have shaped the room for manoeuvre since 2009: the return of power politics, the rise of geoeconomic instruments, and the political fragmentation around the member states. At the same time, the Commission massively expanded its role in foreign policy, weakening the position of the HR/VP and the European External Action Service. Office holders have responded to this with different priorities – from Ashton's operational diplomacy to Mogherini's strategic orientation to Borrell's focus on crisis and security. Kaja Kallas now stands as an example of an office that is politically exposed but institutionally limited. This article discusses reform options and shows why especially Germany remains dependent on a coherently organised EU foreign policy.
Combining Industrial Policy in Europe with Competition
Hanna Hottenrott, Roman Inderst, Eckhard Janeba, Klaus Schmidt, Achim Wambach and Christine Zulehner
How can a modern industrial policy be reconciled with the principles of the social market economy? The article argues for a competition-compliant industrial policy that is coordinated at the European level and guided by market principles. It should focus on a limited set of goals, namely enhancing resilience and security, and adapting to structural change.
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