| The Green Brief will take a summer break after this edition. It will return at the end of August in a new format, which will combine EU transport policy updates as well as the latest on energy and environment. It seems as though half of Brussels is descending upon Strasbourg this week, for the first plenary of the new European Parliament term. While there are lots of committee chair, coordinator and (yes) quaestor roles to be assigned, most attention will be reserved for Ursula von der Leyen, and her quest to secure a second term as Commission President. An anonymous ballot and the absence of any pre-agreed formal coalition deals between the Parliament’s political groups means this is likely to be a high-drama affair. There will simply be von der Leyen’s speech on Thursday afternoon, and then MEPs will vote. Only afterwards will we know if she succeeded or failed. To be secure, von der Leyen needs support from a forth political group, beyond the three main centrist parties, the centre-right European Peoples Party (EPP), centre-left Socialist & Democrats (S&D) and the liberals Renew. This will most likely come from the Greens. Here she will face a tricky balancing act – Green support cannot be at the expense of alienating large parts of her own EPP group, who are weary of the Green Deal and its political pain. And this is where high politics must grapple with detailed policy. There are two Green Deal files in particular, where battle lines are clearly drawn between the groups, with no obvious ‘fudge’ of a compromise to be found for a solution. Firstly there is the 2035 combustion engine ban, which the Greens and S&D support, but elements of the EPP voraciously oppose. Then there is the deforestation law, which the EPP wants to suspend, but others wish to see fully and immediately implemented. There are other agricultural concerns too, but positions are less entrenched, and so some suitably aspirational wording and soaring rhetoric can likely smooth over tensions – at least for now. Von der Leyen’s speech may or may not secure her a second term. But either way, her speech will make clear the extent to which the energy transition and environmental protection have been irrevocably hard wired into EU high politics. - By Donagh Cagney | 
