© Reuters. European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen takes half in a press convention on the day of a European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium February 1, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File Photograph
By Andreas Rinke and Riham Alkousaa
BERLIN (Reuters) – European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen is predicted to safe the backing of her German centre-right celebration on Monday for a second time period, placing her in a powerful place to clinch one other 5 years operating the European Union’s government physique.
At a gathering of the celebration management, Germany’s opposition Christian Democrats are set to announce that she will likely be their candidate for Fee president, confirming a widespread assumption that von der Leyen would search one other time period.
The 65-year-old former German defence minister is then prone to turn out to be the candidate of the pan-European centre-right umbrella group, the European Individuals’s Get together, at a congress in Bucharest in March.
The primary girl to carry the job, von der Leyen steered the EU by way of the COVID-19 pandemic, the formal exit of Britain from the bloc and the ructions following Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
She would start a second time period at a time when Europe is specializing in how one can strengthen its safety, with Russia waging a struggle on its borders and the potential of former U.S. President Donald Trump returning to the White Home.
At a safety convention in Munich on the weekend, von der Leyen mentioned the Fee would current a defence technique proposal geared toward fostering increased and extra environment friendly spending with joint procurement and agreements to offer predictability to trade.
The leaders of the EU’s 27 member nations will select the Fee president after elections to the European Parliament in June.
BROAD BACKING
By conference, they select a candidate from the grouping that has come first within the EU elections. As polls present the EPP has a powerful lead and von der Leyen enjoys broad backing amongst EU leaders, she appears prone to win one other time period.
Her highest hurdle could also be getting her Fee confirmed by a majority within the Parliament.
Trying to stay impartial because the Fee’s head for so long as doable, von der Leyen has not but mentioned publicly whether or not she desires a second stint.
However final month the pinnacle of Germany’s conservatives within the European parliament, Daniel Caspary, made clear he anticipated the EPP to appoint her.
CDU chief Friedrich Merz and von der Leyen will give an announcement on the European election marketing campaign after the celebration’s federal government committee afterward Monday.
Regardless of an increase in far-right populist events in plenty of the EU’s 27 states, the EPP, the oldest group within the European parliament, has stored a big lead amongst different European teams, based on opinion polls.