Ursula von der Leyen

A seemingly unbridgeable chasm is splitting the continent between countries that see LGBT rights as the core of European identity of freedom and tolerance, and those that see them as a threat to that same identity

The European Union’s chief executive has vowed to take the steps needed to stymie a new law in Hungary.  The law in question bans content portraying homosexuality or gender reassignment to children. The Hungarian parliament passed the bill last week, 157-1, but it requires endorsement from president Áder for it to take effect.  The government […]

A war of the words has broken out between Hungary and the European Commission over a new anti-LGBT law introduced in the country.  Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said she was “very concerned” over this legislation which bans content promoting homosexuality and gender reassignment in schools, and with people under the age […]

Boris Johnson has insisted he does not disagree with Joe Biden on anything as the pair began a potentially tricky meeting in Cornwall. The US president will use the meeting to warn the prime minister not to let the row over Northern Ireland’s Brexit arrangements put the Good Friday Agreement at risk. The issue has […]

Why sanctions have become the go-to response when an international crisis hits

Recent tensions felt in Northern Ireland are not a result of the protocol introduced after the UK left the EU but rather Brexit itself, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said. She was speaking following the first day of the EU Council – the first such meeting since the introduction of the EU-UK trade […]

European Council president Charles Michel said Minsk was playing “Russian roulette” after a Ryanair flight was diverted and a prominent critic arrested in Belarus. Journalist Roman Protasevich was on board a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius on Sunday when it was forced to change course to head for the Belarussian capital after a reported […]

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has given an emotional speech to mark Europe Day at an event in Strasbourg. During the Conference on the Future of Europe, the heads of the European parliament and the European Commission delivered speeches on their vision for the continent. Von der Leyen said the conference was a […]

Lawyers are challenging the European parliament’s decision to remove immunity from prosecution for an MEP who could face extradition to Spain. Clara Ponsati faces a charge of sedition over her role in Catalonia’s unsanctioned independence referendum in 2017. Ponsati, a University of St Andrews academic, became an MEP after five seats in the European parliament […]

European Commission female president Ursula von der Leyen has blamed sexism for the “sofagate” debacle in Turkey earlier this month. Von der Leyen was left without a chair during a meeting in Ankara with Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan on April 6. She said that the incident only happened because she is a woman. “I cannot find […]

The European Union has said it “will not hesitate” to use dispute resolution mechanisms in the Brexit deal if the UK breaches the agreement. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, was speaking as MEPs prepared to ratify the deal thrashed out between the EU and UK. Von der Leyen told the European Parliament […]

Michel Barnier, the man who led the European Union’s negotiations with the UK, claimed that Brexit is a “mark of failure”. Speaking in front of MEPs as they prepared to vote on the trade agreement with the UK, he attributed the Brexit vote to “social anger and tensions” in the UK. He said: “This is a divorce. […]

Brussels is on the verge of suspending Turkey’s membership negotiations to join the EU over human rights violations. MEPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing the European parliament to vote on a formal suspension next month. If passed, this would be the first major shift in EU-Turkish relations since negotiations […]

The EU is on the verge of striking the world’s biggest supply deal of Pfizer’s Covid-19 jabs. The European Commission is finalising the purchase of 1.8 billion doses to supply member states for the next few years. The news comes as the World Health Organisation warned that shots remained out of reach for the world’s […]

A German MEP has called on EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to “take full responsibility” and resign over the bloc’s “disastrous” coronavirus vaccine programme. Gunnar Back also praised the UK for taking “a different path” to Europe on its vaccine rollout. Beck, an EU lawyer and lecturer at the University of London, said: “She took […]

Women’s organisations are calling on the European Council president Charles Michel to resign over an incident that was dubbed “sofagate”.  Michel has been criticised for failing to do more to ensure that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was seated beside him and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at last week’s meeting, when the government in Ankara […]

The European Commission president has floundered over Covid. But is it a sign of deeper problems within the Union? Perhaps it is because they are blond(e)s. That can be the only reason why Ursula von der Leyen has been compared to Boris Johnson. Yes, their fathers had jobs at the European Commission, and they spent […]

Turkey has been left angered by Italian prime minister Mario Draghi after he branded the country’s president a “dictator” for humiliating European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The comments about Recep Tayyip Erdogan follows tension between EU leaders and the Turkish government after claims Von der Leyen had been snubbed at a key meeting in the country’s capital. The […]

Turkey has hit out at the European Union after Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was left without a seat at a meeting in Ankara. The meeting at the presidential palace saw European Council president Charles Michel and Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan both taking seats, but the female Commission president is left standing, before […]

The European Commission president has warned AstraZeneca that it must “honour” its vaccine contract with the bloc before exporting doses elsewhere in the world. Ursula von der Leyen urged “transparency” from other countries, but did not confirm if the EU would bring in tougher export restrictions on coronavirus jabs, amid a row over supplies with […]

The European Union should step back from waging a “stupid vaccine war” with the UK, former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said. He warned that threatening export bans could cause “major reputational damage” to the bloc as EU leaders held discussions on tightening restrictions to supplies of coronavirus jabs. The commission has set out […]

Vaccine campaigners have accused Boris Johnson of a “warped” understanding of the crisis after he joked that “greed” and capitalism had contributed to the success of the jabs. The prime minister made the comments at a private meeting of Tory MPs, but then hastily sought to backtrack as he praised AstraZeneca for supplying the Oxford vaccine at […]

Boris Johnson is expected to ask European leaders this week to dismiss any proposals to block coronavirus vaccine exports to the UK. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has ramped up the rhetoric this weekend, saying the EU has the power to “forbid” exports, adding: “That is the message to AstraZeneca.” The warning reflects […]

More than 25 million people in the UK have received a first dose of coronavirus vaccine but the country faces a looming squeeze on supply and a possible block on doses from the European Union. The milestone was passed in the first 100 days of the vaccination campaign, but the NHS warned there would be […]

European leaders have made catastrophic errors over vaccines, for which their citizens are paying a price. But the shambles has not undermined the basic principles on which the EU is built. The roll-out of the Covid vaccine should be a moment for universal celebration, but something disturbing is happening. It’s being wrapped in a Brexit narrative […]

Europe's leaders are human beings - they are just as fallible as anybody else.

Covid has damaged populists in power. But it has also assisted those in opposition, especially in Europe where the centre is struggling to protect its population, says NICK COHEN. To say the radical right is deceitful and malevolent is to state the obvious but miss the point. I do not mean to discourage you from fighting […]

A German minister has hit back at comparisons between the EU and the UK over coronavirus vaccines – by pointing to the death and infection rate in the country. German economy minister Peter Altmaier – an ally of Angela Merkel – claimed there had been “endless suffering” in Britain because of the government’s handling of […]