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# Von der Leyen pledges a European Defence Union in re-election guidelines
- URL: https://sovereigntymonitor.eu/news/2024-07-18-von-der-leyen-political-guidelines-defence/
- Published: 2024-07-18T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-06T13:01:56.000Z
- Description: Presenting her re-election guidelines to Parliament on 18 July 2024, Ursula von der Leyen made defence a priority, pledging a "European Defence Union" and a white paper on European defence within the new Commission's first 100 days.
- Author: Reidar Balstad
- Tags: Defence and space, Policy and law, #news, #reported, #opinion, #editor-read

Reported Opinion Editor-read [European Parliament Research Service briefing on von der Leyen's Political Guidelines 2024-2029, 18 July 2024](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS%5FBRI%282024%29766229?ref=sovereigntymonitor.eu)

**What the source does not establish.** It does not itself create any defence fund, law or Commissioner post; those depend on the Commission actually formed later.

**Index score.** This item is dated before the index starts on 1 January 2026, so it does not count in the [European Sovereignty Index](https://sovereigntymonitor.eu/sovereignty-index/).

**How this item was made.** Drafted by an AI system (Claude (Anthropic)) from the source cited above; read and approved by the editor on 2026-11-06\. [How the record is made](https://sovereigntymonitor.eu/method/#how-the-record-is-made)