Ursula von der Leyen has said the EU as the world’s “trading superpower” will lead the fight against the “existential threat” from the climate crisis, and offered a waspish farewell to the Brexit party, as MEPs backed her new European commission to start work on 1 December.
The European parliament, sitting in Strasbourg, approved the new college of commissioners, headed by the EU executive’s first female president, by 461 votes to 157 with 89 abstentions on Wednesday, giving her a larger majority than her predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker.
Von der Leyen said the level of support she had secured, while less than that for José Manuel Barroso in 2004 and 2010, was a vote of confidence in what she described as an “agenda for change”.
The Green party, which has been unconvinced by the radicalism of Von der Leyen’s approach, abstained in the vote and anti-EU parties including Italy’s far-right League and France’s National Rally rejected the proposed commission.
The commission, which will be formally approved by leaders on the European council on Thursday through a written procedure, is forming a month later than intended as a result of MEPs rejecting the original nominees from Hungary, France and Romania.
Von der Leyen’s hour-long speech to MEPs lacked the ad-libbing of Juncker, who was never shy of causing controversy, and offered few eye-grabbing policy initiatives. But when Brexit party MEPs clapped and cheered at the mention of Brexit, the incoming commission president strayed from her notes.
“A vast majority of this house seems to be happy about the fact a very, very, very small group in this house would not be able to clap as loud any more,” Von der Leyen said. “And I have never, ever made any secret about that fact that I will always be a remainer.”
She added: “We will respect the decision taken by the British people. We will work closely together on solutions to common challenges, especially security matters. But one thing has to be absolutely clear: whatever the future holds, the bond and the friendship between our people are unbreakable.”
Von der Leyen repeatedly emphasised that her top priority upon taking office this Sunday was dealing with the climate emergency and ensuring the end of carbon emissions by the middle of the century. The commission is set to unveil its “green deal” on 11 December.
She said: “This is an existential issue for Europe – and for the world. How can it not be existential when 85% of people in extreme poverty live in the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change? How can it not be existential when we see Venice under water, Portugal’s forests on fire or Lithuania’s harvests cut by half because of droughts? This has happened before but never with the same frequency or intensity.”
Von der Leyen said the commission would look to robotics to move people out of occupations that she suggested should no longer be carried out by people.
She said: “We will automate work that is wearisome for us humans: carrying heavy loads, performing repetitive tasks in factories or in offices. And this will give us time. Time for what distinguishes human beings. Time for what computers can’t do: empathy and creativity.”
Von der Leyen said she wanted the commission to be “geopolitical”. “We can be the shapers of a better global order”, she said.
She made a thinly veiled reference to the policies of Donald Trump in a section of the speech criticising those who sought confrontation and unilateralism.
Of the transatlantic relationship, she said: “Yes, we have issues – without any doubt. But our ties have lasted the test of time. While we are speaking, thousands of students, researchers, entrepreneurs, artists continue to build zillions of friendships, business contacts and science projects. These myriad of fine threads woven together make a bond that is stronger than any individual point of discord.”
On a personal note, Von der Leyen – who was born in Germany and spent much of her childhood in Brussels where her father was an official – said her commission would seek to lead in the fight against cancer across the EU.
“When I was a girl, living in Brussels, my little sister died of cancer at the age of 11,” she said. “I remember the utter sense of helplessness of my parents, but also of the medical staff who looked after her with such care. Every one of us has a similar story or knows someone who has. The number of cancer cases is rising but we are getting better at diagnosis and treatment. Europe will take the lead in the fight against cancer.”
EU commissioners
Phil Hogan – trade Known in Ireland as Big Phil, Hogan will oversee the post-Brexit trade talks. This is his second term in the commission. As agriculture commissioner he was given the nickname Farmer Phil by the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker. Hogan has not shied away from intervening in the Brexit debate: at one point he warned people to ignore the views of the “three stooges” – Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Věra Jourová – values and transparency In 2006, Jourová spent a month in a Czech jail on false corruption charges. Now she will oversee the sensitive issue of democratic backsliding. Hungary and Poland have been accused of undermining the independence of their judiciaries in recent years. Ursula von der Leyen has suggested she will look to link member states’ record on the rule of law with EU funding.
Virginijus Sinkevičius – environment and the oceans At 29, Lithuanian Sinkevičius is the youngest ever EU commissioner and the first to be born after the fall of the Berlin wall. He graduated in 2012 with a degree in economics and international relations from Aberystwyth University and has studied courses at the universities of Maastricht and Oxford. He became an economics minister in the Lithuanian government at the age of 27.
Thierry Breton – internal market A former chairman and chief executive of the IT firm Atos and one-time finance minister under Jacques Chirac, Breton was chosen for this big portfolio by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, after MEPs rejected France’s first choice, Sylvie Goulard. She had been accused of using a European parliament assistant for domestic political work when she was an MEP. Breton doubled Atos’s revenues between 2008 and 2019 to around €12.3bn by moving into cloud computing and big data.
Ylva Johansson – migration, asylum and internal security Migration remains one of the biggest challenges for the EU, with criticism growing about the bloc’s funding of the Libyan coastguard and the deplorable conditions in which migrants are detained by the authorities in Libya. Johansson, a former minister in the Swedish government, has said she wants a new pact among the member states on migration and an overhaul of asylum rules. But she admitted to MEPs during hearings that there would not be any new proposals during her first 100 days in office.