The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, has canceled part of her official agenda during the first two weeks of January due to “severe pneumonia”, as reported by an official spokesperson for the Community Executive this Friday. Canceled appointments during this time included a speech in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, and a visit to Gdansk, Poland. This last trip was part of the traditional visit that the European Commission makes at the beginning of each semester to the country that rotates to preside over the Council of the EU.
Von der Leyen began her second term at the head of a new European Commission on December 1. She was confirmed in the position last summer by the European Parliament, but the entire community Executive was ratified by MEPs at the end of November.
This pneumonia represents a setback for the first 100 days of the new Commission, which Von der Leyen had planned to be intense. In fact, for next January 15, in principle, it is planned that the Competitiveness Compass will be approved, a kind of framework economic program for the next five years that points to one of the great priorities that has been marked German policy for this new period.
