Name? Ursula von der Leyen
Westphalian identity? European
Age? 61
Why is she in the news? She has been President of the European Commission for 100 days now. (103 tbh) It is time for a first analysis of her doings.
Why do we care? In last week’s Daily Updates we did not cover single women and therefore need to redeem ourselves.
Why should you care? Ursula von der Leyen is the most powerful women in the European Union and many of her decisions impact your daily life without you noticing. In her first 100 days, she passed the European Green Deal, a European digital strategy as well as an AI strategy. And these are only the matter she planned before. In the past few days alone she met Erdogan for talks over Syria (avoiding another 2015) and found 25 billion Euros in her budget to help the economy over Corona. A pretty busy woman if you ask us.
Who else cares? Businessmen and diplomats all over the world. While most of us are busy with Corona (damn it, we mentioned it again) the business and foreign policy world focusses very much on what von der Leyen is doing. Her decisions will lead Europe into the future, after all, she said that Europe “must learn the language of power”. Decision-makers will watch closely what that means.
Any further comments? While it is always interesting to analyse what people do, sometimes it is more important to analyse what people do not do. Von der Leyen spoke about the language of power, yet the situation in Libya and the killing of Solemeini left her speechless.
