Ursula von der Leyen

Ursula von der Leyen
President of the European Commission 

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen is a German politician, serving as the 13th president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding positions in Angela Merkel’s cabinet, most recently as federal minister of defence. She is a member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and its affiliated European political party, the European People’s Party.

• According to the treaties, the President decides on the organisation of the Commission and allocates portfolios to individual Commissioners. The President also sets the Commission’s policy agenda.
• The President represents the Commission in European Council meetings, G7 and G20 summits, summits with non-EU countries and major debates in the European Parliament and the Council.
• President von der Leyen was appointed by national leaders and elected by the European Parliament after she presented her Political Guidelines.

These guidelines were inspired by her discussions with the parliament’s political groups, as well as by the European Council’s strategic agenda for 2019-2024. They set the work of the European institutions around six headline ambitions for Europe for this period:

• a European Green Deal
• a Europe fit for the digital age
• an economy that works for people
• a stronger Europe in the world
• promoting our European way of life
• a new push for European democracy

European Commission

Principal roles in strategy and policy

The European Commission plays an active role in developing the EU’s overall strategy and in designing and implementing EU policies. It evaluates and reports on its policies on a regular basis.

Setting strategic priorities

• Along with the other main EU institutions, the European Commission develops the overall strategy and political direction of the EU.
• Every five years, at the beginning of a new Commission term, the president of the Commission also determines the political priorities for its upcoming term of office.
• The Commission turns these priorities into concrete actions on a yearly basis through an annual work programme, which sets out a plan of action for the next twelve months.