Teresa Ribera will chair the meeting of the College of Commissioners this Wednesday due to the absence due to pneumonia of the president, Ursula von der Leyen, who canceled her public agenda two weeks ago due to that illness. The German has delegated to the vice president of Competition and Clean Transition, who is next in line, although she has avoided delegating her responsibilities until the last moment.
“The president is recovering at home. She will not preside over the College of Commissioners this week and has asked Vice President Ribera to do so,” announced the spokesperson for the European Commission, Paula Pinho, who has assured that Von der Leyen will resume her public agenda at the end of this week and that The next he will participate in the Davos summit and in the Plenary Session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The European Commission hid the fact that Von der Leyen was hospitalized as a result of the “severe pneumonia” she suffered, as revealed by the German agency DPA on Friday. The spokesperson for the community government has justified that she revealed the “critical information” about the president’s state of health.
Pinho recalled that he was informed of the illness, of the cancellation of his public agenda and that he was in a position to maintain daily contact with his team, as well as with the leaders “if necessary.” Thus, he recalled that he had a telephone conversation with the far-right Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. “His ability to act was never in question,” Pinho justified in the face of criticism from journalists for the lack of transparency. What he specified in response to informants this Monday is that he was not in intensive care nor did he have to use a respirator.
Von der Leyen has given an absolutely presidential character to the European Commission that forces everything to pass through her hands, but Pinho has denied that the delay in the presentation of the Competitiveness Compass that was scheduled to be presented at the meeting of the College of Commissioners this Wednesday is due to the absence of the German. “It is due to the lack of maturity of the file, it happens often,” the spokesperson responded about the initiative, which aims to be the framework for one of the EU’s main challenges in the midst of a trade war with China and the US.
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