Her speech was praised by the majority of parliamentarian groups on the left and right, but those on the far right attacked her vision for Europe. The plan centers on closing down coal-powered facilities and increasingly getting energy from renewable sources and hydrogen. “Be it in Hong Kong, Moscow or Minsk: Europe must take a clear and swift position,” she said. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the European Parliament, one of the world’s largest elected bodies with 705 members, is restricting the number of parliamentarians who can sit in the chamber at the same time. On China, she said the EU’s relationship with the Asian superpower is “one of the most strategically important and one of the most challenging we have.”. The nicknames Ursula von der Leyen has acquired over the course of her 29-year career in German politics tell their own story about the new president of the European commission. Born in October 1958, Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen spent her first 13 years in Brussels, where her father was one of the first pan-European civil servants. Instead, there’s growing resignation that selecting the EU’s new leadership will be (like most important European decisions) a slog. The environment and global warming have climbed up the political agenda in Europe and Green parties are seeing a surge of support in Germany, Belgium and Austria. Matthew Lewis/Getty. “You especially saw that in her bitter and protracted battle to modernise her party’s view on the role of the family.”. A parliamentary committee is investigating the ministry for accusations of nepotism, and Von der Leyen is expected to be invited as a witness in December. Before agreeing to sanctions against Lukashenko’s brutal crackdown on protests, Cyprus wants to get the EU to slap sanctions on Turkey for seeking to drill for natural gas in Mediterranean waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus. After she joined the CDU in 1990, on the same day her father stepped down from his job as state premier, her inner freedom made its mark on the posts she held, first as a regional and national delegate and then at the family, work and defence ministries. New EU president raises fears in aspirant Turkey. Von der Leyen also spoke out against racist, anti-immigrant and anti-gay sentiment in Europe. The European Union is still battling over how this actually happens. The EU is often slow in reacting to world events because of disagreements among its members, which often have divided allegiances. However, in a nod to Trump’s allegations that international agencies are skewed against the United States, she said the EU needs to take the lead in seeking to reform international bodies, in particular the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization. “Europe must now lead the way on digital – or it will have to follow the way of others, who are setting these standards for us.”, Privacy issues are taking center stage too in Europe and the EU is in a major battle with American tech giants over control of data, a core source of new wealth for businesses. Without naming Poland, she also lashed out at so-called “LGBT-free zones.” Numerous Polish towns and cities have passed resolutions declaring their opposition to the promotion of LGBT rights. New European Council president warns of Brexit impact on welfare. “Vaccine cooperation saves them.”. The Greens will now be key for her to secure the job. The mandate of two and a half years of the President of the European Council is renewable once. Members of the European Parliament have elected the centre-left Italian David Sassoli to be their president for the next two-and-a-half years. “To those that advocate closer ties with Russia, I say that the poisoning of Alexei Navalny with an advanced chemical agent is not a one off,” she said. “But the danger is you will end up with Europe dead.”. During her time in charge of the family ministry, she was first called Krippen-Ursel (“crèche Ursel”), a conservative closet feminist set on expanding nursery places, and then Zensursula, a control freak who wanted to shield German youth from the dark sides of the internet. “In the face of the crisis, some around the world choose to retreat into isolation,” she said, a subtle jab at Trump. “The EU and the U.K. jointly agreed it was the best and only way for ensuring peace on the island of Ireland.”, As such, she said, “it cannot be unilaterally changed, disregarded or disapplied. Victoria Friedman. She said the commission plans to adopt a plan on combating racism in Europe and to unveil a new plan on how to handle the contentious issue of immigrants and asylum seekers entering the EU. An earlier version said Ursula von der Leyen is not afraid to raise heckles, rather than hackles. It is not about Europe First. From ‘closet feminist’ to bossy career woman, detractors paint conflicting pictures of German politician, Last modified on Wed 17 Jul 2019 11.56 EDT. Italian Social Democrat MEP David Sassoli, 63, won on Wednesday a vote to become the new president of the European Parliament, completing the roster of top EU … Trust is the foundation of any strong partnership.”. “They are not pieces on someone else’s chess board.”. Under her watch, Germany introduced a law guaranteeing every child over 12 months of age a place at a daycare facility, and a paid parental leave scheme that includes at least two months of paid leave for fathers. Ms von der Leyen has been nominated to be President of the European Commission, meaning she would be the head of the EU’s executive arm, which is responsible for proposing laws and implementing policies. But change by design – not by destruction.” Under Trump, the U.S. has withdrawn from the WHO and brought the WTO to the brink of collapse. Who is Ursula von der Leyen, the new EU commission president? ANKARA (Reuters) - Herman Van Rompuy’s appointment as the first European Union president provoked fears in … If there is one quality the European commission’s first female president shares with her mentor Angela Merkel, it is that her political persuasions can be difficult to classify. Represents the EU externally on foreign and security issues. Married since 1986 to a physician, Heiko, and mother to seven children, Von der Leyen has juggled a prolific career with family life – at the cost of popularity within her own party, some say. Brexit Party leader and MEP Nigel Farage has called the nominations for the new heads of European Union institutions a “Franco-German” set-up. Switching to study medicine, she later worked as an assistant physician at a women’s clinic in Hanover and graduated as a doctor of medicine in 1991. Johnson’s attempt to break the agreement – in the legislation’s language, “disapply” it – has caused a furor in London and European capitals. Nicolas Bay, a leader of the far-right Identity and Democracy group in the parliament, accused von der Leyen of moving the EU in the wrong direction by taking on massive levels of debt after passing a $880 billion coronavirus recovery plan, impeding growth with “draconian” environmental restrictions, taking a soft approach on China and opening Europe up to immigrants. This article was amended on 17 July 2019. She also spent a good deal of her speech on another key area for her administration: the need to boost Europe’s digital capacity. Tuesday 16 July 2019, 1:28pm The EU Parliament has confirmed Ursula von der Leyen is the new European Commission President after a winning a … FILE - Ursula von der Leyen addresses European Parliament members after being elected as the new European Commission president. Her speech – delivered in three languages she speaks, English, German and French – was given inside a largely empty European Parliament building in Brussels with those in attendance wearing masks. Human rights groups accuse China of sending Uighurs to re-education camps and committing mass human rights violations in its campaign against Uighur terrorism. Tue 16 Jul 2019 13.39 EDT 1,057 Ursula von der Leyen has been confirmed as the European commission’s first female president and the first German in the job for more than 50 years. Ursula von der Leyen’s political persuasions, like those of her mentor Angela Merkel, are difficult to classify. EU28: European Parliament votes by 383 to 327 to confirm Ursula von der Leyen (EPP) for a five year term as European Commission President. The resolutions carry no binding legal powers, but they are seen by critics as discriminatory. Americans who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union this summer, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European … Line by line, word by word,” she said. European Council appoints new EU leaders The European Council elected today Charles Michel as President of the European Council. When she became Germany’s first female defence minister in 2013, her (mostly male) detractors referred to her as Flinten-Uschi (“shotgun Uschi”), a caricature of the bossy career woman. Major powers are either pulling out of institutions or taking them hostage for their own interests.”. To the end of protecting Europeans’ data, she said the commission will propose setting up a system whereby EU citizens can obtain “a secure European e-identity” that allows them to control how their personal data is used whenever they “do anything from paying your taxes to renting a bicycle.”, She added: “We want to lead the way, the European way, to the Digital Age: based on our values, our strength, our global ambitions.”, On foreign affairs, von der Leyen said Europe can lead too by not retreating “into isolation.”. “If she has a weakness, it is her tendency to excessive stage management,” said Goffart. Role: Leads the European Council's work in setting the EU's general political direction and priorities – in cooperation with the Commission. More recently, Von der Leyen grabbed negative headlines over the accusation that her defence ministry had allocated over-inflated contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros to external consultants. If Von der Leyen’s approval ratings have recently plummeted, making her the least popular minister in Merkel’s cabinet, it is because her handling of Germany’s notoriously under-funded military at times displayed those same deficiencies. For example, some members like France and Italy favor closer relations to Russia while others like Poland and Baltic states are opposed to that. In a … The President of the European Council is elected for the period from 1 December 2019 until 31 May 2022. “The truth is also that the need to revitalize and reform the multilateral system has never been so urgent,” she said. This is a list of presidents of the institutions of the European Union (EU). Commission President. The current European Commission President is Jean-Claude Juncker. On 2 July 2019, the European Council adopted the decision proposing Ursula von der Leyen to the European Parliament as candidate for President of the European Commission. This a matter of law, trust and good faith …. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Lukashenko and provided Belarus with about $1.8 billion in aid. “For me, London was the epitome of modernity: freedom, the joy of life, trying everything. “While much of the world’s activity froze during lockdowns and shutdowns, the planet continued to get dangerously hotter,” she said. Both the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission are sometimes wrongly termed the President of the European Union. The 28 EU member countries have agreed on their nominees for the bloc's top jobs. For me, coming from the rather monotonous, white Germany, that was fascinating. China, the U.S. and Russia have not joined the initiative. Member states nominate a candidate for the post, but in doing so they must take account of the European election results. A liberal in conservative clothing or a pious authoritarian matriarch? She added the commission plans to invest in building a European cloud-computing system and spend $9.4 billion on new supercomputers. She urged China to keep its word about curbing global warming and chided Beijing over its brutal actions in Hong Kong and for abusing the human rights of Uighurs, a population of Muslims in northwestern China. On Aug. 9, Lukashenko was declared the winner of an allegedly rigged presidential race, sparking weeks of protests. “Our global system has grown into a creeping paralysis. “She has an incredible amount of energy”, said Daniel Goffart, a political correspondent for the news magazine Focus who co-wrote her biography in 2015. “I want to be crystal clear – LGBTQI-free zones are humanity-free zones,” she said. Among her critics, the 60-year-old Von der Leyen has a reputation as an Einzelgängerin, a lone wolf with an instinct for front page-grabbing interviews and photo ops, but lacking the gift to pass the inner freedom driving her career down to the teams she works with. 3 Jul 2019 0. In a rebuff to U.S. President Donald Trump, she also said Europe will never take a “Europe First” approach and that it was time to rebuild the transatlantic alliance. “The pandemic has simultaneously shown both the fragility of the global system and the importance of cooperation to tackle collective challenges,” she said. Von der Leyen also chided the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for seeking to pass legislation in the House of Commons that overrides parts of a withdrawal agreement the U.K. and the EU ratified that ensures Northern Ireland remains aligned to European rules and regulations in order to keep the border with Ireland free of border controls. It is about being the first to seriously answer the call when it matters.”. Currently (2020),the President of the Europea… “That agreement took three years to negotiate and we worked relentlessly on it. In her recent State of the Union Address, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, looked beyond the coronavirus and called for "a new cultural project for Europe." More on the President of the European Council's job. EU top jobs explained: who is coming in and what is their role? “Our leadership is not about self-serving propaganda. “And they have no place in our union.”, She said the commission will “soon put forward a strategy to strengthen LGBTQI rights.”. The President represents the Commission in European Council meetings, G7 and G20 summits, summits with non-EU countries and major debates in the European Parliament and the Council. Her mother, Heidi, took a supporting role, at times leading a family choir that serenaded its patriarch on German TV shows, and stating: “The best way for me to gain the respect of the public is through the role of motherliness.”. That was a reference to Russia, which is supporting Lukashenko. While Eurocrats lauded the “perfect gender balance” after EU leaders agreed nominations for the bloc’s top … Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union. The trouble with unanimous consent emerged in recent days after EU sanctions against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko were reportedly held up by objections from the tiny island member state of Cyprus. She attended the European School in Uccle, graduating two years before a certain Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson joined the same establishment. One of seven children, she was raised in a Christian household that adhered to the traditional model of the West German nuclear family. “We see it all around us: from homes evacuated due to glacier collapse on the Mont Blanc, to fires burning through Oregon, to crops destroyed in Romania by the most severe drought in decades.”. In Brussels and Berlin, she will have two stages to manage. She said the EU needs to expand access to fast internet in rural Europe, speed up 5G technology and boost artificial intelligence. Similarly, China has emerged as a source of division among EU members with some happy to cooperate with Beijing and others taking the opposite position. Maia Sandu has been sworn in as the new president of Moldova, pledging in her inauguration speech on December 24 to be an “honest and transparent” president of … The new president will take office when the new Commission is established. “I lived much more than I studied,” she told the weekly Zeit. Her announcement was welcomed by environmentalists, but many said even more drastic actions are necessary to rein in global warming. Von der Leyen made a further reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 a policy centerpiece while also denouncing human rights abuses by Belarus, China and Russia and scolding the United Kingdom for seeking to break an agreement it reached with the EU over Brexit and the future of Northern Ireland. Promotes cohesion and consensus within the European Council. The post claims she is the new EU President. This provision was key in Johnson’s ability to get a deeply divided House of Commons to approve the U.K.’s exit from the EU. Data on New EU President’s Official Phone Wiped. Most go back to 1957 but others, such as the Presidents of the Auditors or the European Central Bank have been created recently. Von der Leyen has made her carbon reduction plan, the European Green Deal, central to her administration. When she diagnosed the troops with an “attitude problem” after the emergence of stories about rightwing extremist activities and hazing of new recruits, she was accused – and not only by members of the Bundeswehr – of choosing a good write-up over loyalty to her staff. She is taking over at a delicate moment, with … Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Mexico’s Pirate Ambulances Profiteering in the Pandemic. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, arrives for a plenary session ahead of her first State of the Union speech at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday. Instead of attending CDU summer fetes in rural Lower Saxony, said her biographer Goffart, she preferred to spend weekends at the family home in Beinhorn near Hanover when her children were still young. She said the EU must take a tough line on Russia, which she accused of being behind the poisoning of critics, most recently the opposition figure Alexei Navalny with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. As state premier of Lower Saxony, her father, Ernst Albrecht, became a leading figure of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and a bete noire for the burgeoning Green movement, with whom he clashed over the opening of a nuclear waste depository. Mr Sassoli, 63, received the support … “Vaccine nationalism puts lives at risk,” she said, echoing a phrase used by the WHO. Unlike Germany’s consensus-seeking chancellor, however, she is not afraid to raise hackles and divide opinion to drive through the policies she believes are right. Following next week's vote to confirm the Commission President, the Parliament will vote again in October to confirm or reject the new college of 28 EU commissioners as a whole. Whilst distinct, each president is required to closely co-operate with one another in a complex political system. The EU is also looking at new taxes on carbon. Join EUobserver today. “The people of Belarus must be free to decide their own future for themselves,” she said. (CN) — In her first State of the Union speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday laid out a vision of Europe as a world leader in tackling climate change and upholding an international order built around the rule of law, free trade and human rights. This gave me an inner freedom that I have kept until today. Incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Oct. 18, 2019. The European Parliament elects the Commission President. He received 325 votes in the first round on Wednesday morning (3 July), falling just seven votes short. “From the outset I have said China is a negotiating partner, an economic competitor and a systemic rival,” she said. The commission drafts legislation, issues and enforces regulations and oversees the distribution of EU funds. BRUSSELS - The EU's incoming president … Von der Leyen, a former German defense minister once touted as German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s successor, is the first female president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. Still, she said international institutions are in need of reforms. Von der Leyen adopted the pseudonym Rose Ladson – a combination of her family nickname and the surname of her American great-grandmother – and enrolled at the London School of Economics. Read and decide. Hillary 2.0? There is no such overarching role held by a single person. Brussels, 3. 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