European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen. | Picture credit score: AP
Ursula von der Leyen pledged to be a robust chief for Europe in instances of disaster and polarization when she made her ultimate management speech on July 18 in a speech to lawmakers within the European Parliament forward of a vote on whether or not to grant her a second five-year time period as president of the European Union’s government fee.
The key poll within the 720-seat parliament comes on the heels of robust beneficial properties by the far proper in final month’s elections for the European Parliament.
“I’ll by no means enable excessive polarisation of our societies to be accepted. I’ll by no means settle for demagogues and extremists destroying our European lifestyle. And I’m right here at the moment prepared to guide the struggle with all democratic forces on this Home,” mentioned von der Leyen.
If a majority of lawmakers reject his candidacy, leaders of the 27-nation bloc could be left scrambling to discover a substitute as Europe grapples with crises starting from the battle in Ukraine to local weather change.
In her speech to Parliament, von der Leyen mentioned: “The destiny of Europe relies on what we do subsequent.” Over the previous 5 years, von der Leyen has guided the bloc by way of a collection of crises, together with Britain’s exit from the EU, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She has additionally pushed by way of a Inexperienced Deal geared toward making the EU climate-neutral by 2050.
Von der Leyen’s choice got here as newly elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted some 45 heads of presidency to debate migration, power safety and the menace from Russia as he seeks to reset relations between the UK and its European neighbours.
Leaders gave the nod to German conservative candidate von der Leyen at a summit late final month. The candidacy of von der Leyen, 65, obtained a lift when the European Individuals’s Celebration, which incorporates von der Leyen’s Christian Democratic Union, remained the biggest group within the European Parliament after the election.
However her re-election will not be a foregone conclusion, as some lawmakers from her personal centre-right European Individuals’s Celebration may nonetheless vote in opposition to her. She wants an absolute majority of 361 votes to safe a second time period. The German politician has been praised for her main position through the coronavirus disaster, when the EU collectively bought vaccines for its residents. However she has additionally confronted harsh criticism for the opacity of negotiations with vaccine producers.
The EU Common Court docket dominated on Wednesday that the Fee failed to offer the general public adequate entry to details about the COVID-19 vaccine buy offers it struck with pharmaceutical firms through the pandemic.
Following the European Parliament elections, EU leaders have agreed on who will fill key positions on the planet’s largest buying and selling bloc within the coming years, masking points starting from antitrust investigations to overseas coverage. Becoming a member of von der Leyen shall be two new faces: Portugal’s Antonio Costa as president of the European Council and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas because the world’s largest buying and selling bloc’s diplomatic chief.
Whereas Costa’s nomination solely wanted the approval of leaders, Kallas can even want the approval of European lawmakers later this 12 months. The Estonian prime minister is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and a fierce critic of Russia inside the European Union and NATO.
