Von der Leyen, Kallas Warn EU Must Adapt to Chaotic World Order

The traditional world order is rapidly crumbling under mounting violations of international law, and the European Union must adapt to this new age of chaos and coercion, Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas warned in back-to-back speeches before EU ambassadors in Brussels. “Europe can no longer be a custodian for the old world order, for a world that has gone and will not return,” the Commission president said, in remarks that have framed every subsequent EU foreign-policy debate of the past two months.

The Iran war as catalyst

Their interventions came as the United States and Israel continue strikes on Iran — a campaign that has upended the balance of power in the Middle East, thrown global energy markets into disarray and driven a wedge between Western allies. The conflict has also raised questions on whether von der Leyen’s active diplomatic outreach is encroaching upon Kallas’s role. The institutional rivalry between the Commission president and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs has been an open secret in Brussels for months.

Kallas: ‘the rulebook has been thrown out’

Speaking after von der Leyen, High Representative Kaja Kallas pointed the finger at Russia’s decision to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago as the cataclysm that precipitated the “erosion of international law”. “That invasion did not go unnoticed. Instead, it sent a signal around the world that there is no more accountability for one’s actions: the rulebook has been thrown out of the window,” Kallas told ambassadors. “Without restoring international law, together with accountability, we are doomed to see repeated violations of the law, disruption and chaos.”

The veto question and EU institutional rules

Von der Leyen used the speech to flag a key priority: internal decision-making rules. Under the EU treaties, the bloc’s foreign policy is bound by unanimity — the 27 member states must agree on a common line of action before moving forward, making individual vetoes extremely powerful. As a result, the EU appears divided, hesitant or even paralysed on the global stage. Brussels is currently wrestling with Hungary’s last-minute veto on the €90 billion loan agreed for Ukraine. Germany’s foreign minister Wadephul has publicly endorsed scrapping foreign-policy unanimity, arguing consensus rules create paralysis and that countries unwilling to support common policies should be permitted to “stay on the sidelines for a time without preventing those who want to move forward.”

The transatlantic frame

Both speeches notably did not explicitly condemn the American-Israeli strikes on Iran as a legal breach. Instead, von der Leyen said the EU should move beyond analyses and address “the reality of the situation” and “the world as it actually is.” The framing reflects an EU that is still negotiating with the Trump administration on a fragile basis: trade deal up to 4 July deadline, transatlantic tariffs, troop withdrawal from Germany, and now direct US pressure on the UK over digital services taxes that the EU’s own member states also impose.