Category Archives: Ursula von der Leyen

Leaders to meet as EU struggles to put on united front over Israel-Hamas war

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Emergency meeting called after a week of rows including over Ursula von der Leyen’s trip to Israel

An emergency meeting of the heads of EU member states has been called on Tuesday in an effort to “harmonise” the bloc’s response to the conflict in Israel and Gaza after a week of dysfunction and division.

As fears grow over the risk of a wider war and a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, EU member states admit they have struggled to put on a united front as they did in February 2023 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

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EU states expressed ‘incomprehension’ at Tunisia migration pact, says Borrell

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Foreign affairs chief in clash with Ursula von der Leyen as he issues broadside against ‘unilateral action’

EU member states expressed “incomprehension” when the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, rushed into a migration pact with Tunisia, it has been revealed.

The concerns were raised in July both verbally and in writing, the EU’s chief diplomat responsible for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, wrote in a letter dated 7 September that has been seen by the Guardian.

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Italian PM warns migration an issue for all of Europe on Lampedusa visit

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Far-right Giorgia Meloni says crisis cannot be ‘just resolved within Italian borders’ on visit to island where 8,500 arrived in days

Italy’s prime minister has said that European countries must work together “to stop departures [from Africa]” and swiftly deport those turned down for asylum, who she said “threaten the future of Europe”, after thousands of people seeking refuge arrived on Lampedusa in the last week.

Giorgia Meloni toured the tiny Sicilian island, which for years has been the first port of call for people making the treacherous journey by sea from north Africa, on Sunday morning alongside Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

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UK nears agreement to cooperate with EU border force

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Frontex deal would be Sunak’s third with EU as prime minister but would not address small boats crisis

Rishi Sunak is on the verge of securing an agreement for cooperation between the UK and the EU’s border protection agency, Frontex in a further sign of thawing post-Brexit relations.

The deal is expected to mirror other agreements Frontex has with “third country” states, including one with Albania, which agreed to renew its 2019 accord.

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EU diplomats hope Horizon deal could be first of many with UK

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UK’s return to science programme raises hope of more deals, including suspension of planned EV tariffs

A dramatic thaw in relations between Britain and the EU has raised hopes that the Horizon science deal could be the first of many breakthroughs, diplomats in Brussels have said.

They claimed the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, had a close relationship that was in stark contrast to the hostility EU officials faced from Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

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EU denies reports it has rejected UK deal to return people who cross Channel

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Ursula von der Leyen aide reported to have ruled out ‘returns agreement’ in leaked copy of memo

The EU has rejected reports that it is not open to a new deal with the UK on returning people who have crossed the Channel, after a leak of purported discussions between London and Brussels.

A leaked copy of a memo on discussions with the UK’s national security adviser, Sir Tim Barrow, was reported to have included mention of an aide to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, ruling out a post-Brexit “returns agreement”.

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EU to invest €45bn in Latin America and Caribbean

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Package includes projects to extract minerals, electrify bus fleets and help protect Amazon rainforest

EU leaders in Brussels have announced €45bn (£39bn) in investments to Latin America and the Caribbean, some of which will speed the shift to clean energy, but made little headway thawing a frozen trade deal that critics say will further degrade the Amazon rainforest.

The EU-Celac summit, the first of its kind since 2015, aimed to bring the EU closer to Latin American and Caribbean countries. Disagreements over how to refer to the war in Ukraine in the final text soured negotiations.

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EU signs off €1bn deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration

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Ursula von der Leyen hails deal as an investment in shared prosperity and stability

The EU has signed off on a €1bn (£860m) deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration, as the president of the north African country denounced those who offer migrants “sympathy without respect” for their goal to have equity in life.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, hailed the deal with Tunisia, including significant measures to stem deadly irregular migration across the mediterranean, as an investment in shared prosperity and stability.

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EU passes nature restoration law in knife-edge vote

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MEPs back law to place recovery measures on 20% of EU’s land and sea by 2030 by dozen votes

The EU has narrowly passed a key law to protect nature – a core pillar of the Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s European Green Deal – after months of fiery debate and an opposition campaign scientists criticised as misleading.

The nature restoration law will place recovery measures on 20% of the EU’s land and sea by 2030, rising to cover all degraded ecosystems by 2050.

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EU to drop ban of hazardous chemicals after industry pressure

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Exclusive: Leaked documents show that as little as 1% of products containing hazardous substances could be prohibited

The European Commission is poised to break a promise to outlaw all but the most essential of Europe’s hazardous chemicals, leaked documents show.

The pledge to “ban the most harmful chemicals in consumer products, allowing their use only where essential” was a flagship component of the European green deal when it was launched in 2020.

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Ursula von der Leyen says ‘direction of travel’ is EU membership for Ukraine

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European Commission head is seeking to curb Russian influence in central and eastern Europe

The EU has said it will be impossible to envisage a future for the bloc without Ukraine and Moldova as members, in part to reduce Russian influence in east and central Europe.

While other countries such as Romania and Bulgaria took 11 years to become members of the EU, joining in 2007, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, hinted the future of the new accession candidates will be swiftly decided.

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EU softens China strategy by adopting ‘de-risking’ approach

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Decision agreed quickly at Brussels summit of leaders as bloc highlights vulnerability of supply chains

EU leaders have launched a policy towards China of “de-risking”, a softening of its unofficial “decoupling” approach that reflects concerns over the economic damage of cutting off the world’s second-biggest economy or entering a trade war with it.

The decision was agreed quickly at a summit of leaders in Brussels after the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, went into the summit with consensus among the 27 member states.

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Moldova to press for accelerated EU membership process at leaders’ summit

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Meeting in Chișinău is opportunity to show country is ‘fit for EU membership’, foreign minister says

Moldova wants to start formal talks on becoming a EU member state and will use the a summit of all 50 EU and non-member European leaders in its capital, Chișinău, on Thursday to underline its desire to accelerate the accession process, the country’s foreign minister said.

Along with Ukraine, Moldova has official accession candidate status since last year but believes, like its larger neighbour, it can accelerate the years-long process to get a seat in Brussels in the face of continuing threats from Russia.

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Ursula von der Leyen steps up calls for tribunal for Russia’s ‘crime of aggression’

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Speaking before Council of Europe summit, European Commission president says ‘accountability for Russia’ will be big topic

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is stepping up calls for a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression.

Speaking ahead of a summit of European leaders in Reykjavik on Tuesday, Von der Leyen said “accountability of Russia for the crime of aggression” would be a big topic. Earlier this week, she promised to “strongly support the creation of a dedicated tribunal to bring Russia’s crime of aggression to trial”.

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Kremlin says its strategic aim is to create a ‘new world order’ – as it happened

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Foreign minister says Russia rejects a ‘unipolar world order led by one hegemon’. This blog is now closed

At a Chinese foreign ministry briefing this morning, spokesperson Mao Ning has asserted that China is in contact with all sides of the conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency quotes the spokesperson saying:

As for the Ukrainian conflict, China maintains a dialogue with all parties involved, including Ukraine. China always stands for a peaceful settlement and is ready to cooperate with the international community to achieve peace.

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Russia-Ukraine war: anyone supporting Moscow in conflict is an ‘accomplice’, Macron says during China visit – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our Russia-Ukraine war coverage here

You may have noticed on Monday that we are testing a new feature across some of the Guardian’s live blogs, including the Ukraine live blog, which allows you to contact us directly. This is for people who want to message the live blogger directly, and they are not public comments.

If you have something you’ve seen you think we’ve missed, or you have questions or comments about the war or our coverage, or you have spotted one of my regular typos, please do drop me a line.

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Europe must reassess its relations with China, says EU chief

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Ursula von der Leyen calls for ‘clear-eyed picture’ of risks as she prepares for Beijing trip

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called on Europe to reassess its diplomatic and economic relations with China before a visit to Beijing next week with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Europe needed to have “a clear-eyed picture on what the risks are”, she said in a wide-ranging speech in Brussels, noting that EU-China relations had become “more distant and more difficult” in recent years as China moved into “a new era of security and control” and ramped up “policies of disinformation and economic and trade coercion”.

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Germany faces EU backlash over U-turn on phasing out combustion engine

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Row a further signal of tensions over the green deal landmark proposals to tackle climate crisis

Germany is facing a growing backlash inside the EU over its U-turn on a law to phase out the combustion engine in new cars by 2035, despite signs of an end to the standoff with Brussels.

The row comes amid growing concerns over France’s push to include nuclear across a swathe of laws on green technologies, a further signal of tensions over the EU green deal, landmark proposals to tackle the climate crisis.

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‘It was time to act as adults’: how Sunak charmed his way through a deal

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Timing, trust and intense talks brought Northern Ireland deal over the finish line

During the final talks on the new post-Brexit deal for Northern Ireland in Windsor on Monday, Rishi Sunak briefly halted proceedings to present Stéphanie Riso, a key member of Ursula von der Leyen’s negotiating team, with a small birthday gift.

The top official, who is moving to a senior European Commission role after six years living and breathing Brexit, was said by those present to have been visibly moved that the prime minister had both known and then chosen to mark the moment.

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Tuesday briefing: What we know about the NI protocol deal – and what we don’t

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In today’s newsletter: the key takeaways from Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen’s announcement of the Windsor agreement

Good morning. Where once there was protocol, now there is protocol amended by framework. I’m talking, of course, about the announcement yesterday that the UK and the EU have agreed a deal to end the interminable dispute over post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland.

The news was finally announced by Rishi Sunak and EU president Ursula von der Leyen in a highly choreographed, and conspicuously cheery, appearance at Windsor Guildhall – previously better known as the wedding venue for Charles and Camilla, and Elton John and David Furnish.

Palestinian territories | Hundreds of Israeli settlers have gone on a violent rampage in the northern West Bank, setting alight dozens of cars and homes after two of their number were killed by a Palestinian gunman. One man was reported killed in what appeared to be the worst incident of settler violence in the area in decades. Read Bethan McKernan’s dispatch from Huwara, West Bank.

UK news | A missing couple that disappeared with their newborn baby in January are in police custody after being arrested in Brighton. Police said that an urgent search was now underway for Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s child.

US media | Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire owner of Fox News, acknowledged under oath that several Fox News hosts endorsed Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, court documents reveal. Murdoch made the admission during a deposition in a $1.6bn lawsuit brought by a voting machine company that accuses Fox News of defamation.

Fertility law | Children born via sperm or egg donation would not need to wait until adulthood to find out more about their biological parents, under proposed updates to the law in the UK. The information would only be shared with the consent of the donor.

Politics | Betty Boothroyd, a former Labour MP and the first female speaker of the House of Commons, has died at the age of 93.The current speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, said Boothroyd “broke that glass ceiling with panache”. See her life in pictures and obituary.

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