EU puts forward first female president
European leaders yesterday proposed awarding the powerful presidency of the European Commission to German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, putting a forceful advocate of trans-Atlantic ties into the top post at a time of international uncertainty.
The European Parliament would need to give final approval — not a sure bet — but, if confirmed, von der Leyen, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, would be the first woman to fill the European Union’s top job.
European leaders also nominated International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde to head the European Central Bank, a decision that would also give that institution its first female leader. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was tapped as the next president of the European Council. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell would be charged with supervising the struggling Iran nuclear agreement as the EU’s foreign policy chief.
Wrangling for the EU’s senior posts is always complex, but this year’s negotiations reflected an increasingly divided Europe. The talks broke the record for length of an EU summit and continued even after the European Parliament began its new five-year session yesterday.
“We believe that this is a good group of people that we have nominated,” Angela Merkel said. “It is a good thing that for the very first time a woman is going to hold that.”
Von der Leyen, 60, has emerged as a tough advocate for Germany and Nato in her years as defence minister. At home, she has pushed for more defence spending, a major focus of dispute with the United States.
Abroad, she has cheered the value of diplomacy and multilateralism, in implicit rebuke to President Donald Trump.
The European Commission is the bureaucratic arm of the European Union, a 32,000-employee-strong juggernaut charged with writing EU regulations and enforcing them.
Its reach is global: the digital privacy laws that it wrote have forced changes by United States tech companies. Its antitrust enforcement is often more aggressive than in the US. And, in concert with European leaders, it has tried to push an ambitious plan to fight climate change.
The president is empowered to strike trade deals on behalf of the 500 million EU citizens, negotiate Brexit and propose and enforce Europe’s powerful regulations.
As European Commission president, von der Leyen would be charged with taking on Trump in trade talks and other US-EU issues.—