European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen faces vote on her bid for second 5-year time period

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STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Ursula von der Leyen pledged to be a powerful chief for Europe in a time of disaster and polarization as she made her ultimate management pitch Thursday in a speech to lawmakers on 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 govt fee.

The key poll on the 720-seat parliament comes sizzling on the heels of robust good points by the far proper in final month’s election for the European Parliament.

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“I’ll by no means let the acute polarization of our societies grow to be accepted. I’ll by no means settle for that demagogues and extremists destroy our European lifestyle. And I stand right here immediately prepared to guide the combat with all of the Democratic forces on this home,” von der Leyen stated.

If a majority of the lawmakers reject her candidacy, it will go away leaders of the 27-nation bloc scrambling to discover a substitute as Europe grapples with crises starting from the struggle in Ukraine to local weather change.

In a speech that sought to shore up assist from throughout the political spectrum, she pledged to strengthen the EU financial system, its police and border companies, sort out migration and pursue insurance policies tackling local weather change whereas additionally serving to farmers who’ve staged protests towards what they name stifling EU forms and environmental guidelines.

She additionally took a swipe at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his latest go to to Russia shortly after his nation took over the rotating six-month EU presidency.

“This so-called peace mission was nothing however an appeasement mission,” von der Leyen stated as she vowed that Europe would stay shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine.

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Over the previous 5 years, von der Leyen has steered the bloc by way of a sequence of crises, together with Britain’s exit from the EU, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She has additionally pushed a Inexperienced Deal aiming to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050.

Von der Leyen’s election got here as newly elected U.Okay. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was welcoming some 45 heads of presidency to debate migration, power safety and the risk from Russia as he seeks to revive relations between the U.Okay. and its European neighbors.

The leaders signed off on the conservative German von der Leyen at a summit assembly late final month. The 65-year-old von der Leyen’s bid was boosted when the European Folks’s Get together, which incorporates von der Leyen’s Christian Democratic Union, remained the biggest group on the EU Parliament after the elections.

However her reelection just isn’t a foregone conclusion as some lawmakers inside her personal center-right European Folks’s Get together might nonetheless vote towards her. She wants a straight 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 purchased vaccines collectively for its residents. However she additionally discovered herself receiving sharp criticism for the opacity of the negotiations with vaccine makers.

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The EU basic court docket dominated Wednesday that the fee didn’t permit the general public sufficient entry to details about COVID-19 vaccine buy agreements it secured with pharmaceutical firms through the pandemic.

Following the elections for EU Parliament, European Union leaders agreed on the officers who will maintain the important thing positions on this planet’s largest buying and selling bloc within the coming years for points starting from antitrust investigations to international coverage. Along side von der Leyen will likely be two new faces: Antonio Costa of Portugal as European Council president and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas as the highest diplomat of the world’s largest buying and selling bloc.

Whereas Costa’s nomination solely wanted the leaders’ approval, Kallas can even should be permitted by European lawmakers later this yr. The Estonian prime minister is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and a fierce critic of Russia throughout the European Union and NATO.

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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Related Press Samuel Petrequin in Brussels contributed.

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