New EU chief makes first trip to Brussels

The EU’s new president-elect Ursula von der Leyen yesterday made her first trip to Brussels since being nominated, as senior officials sought to shore up support for her appointment in the European Parliament.

Current German defence minister von der Leyen met Jean-Claude Juncker, the man she is to replace as European Commission president, for talks a day after pledging to present her “vision for the next five years for Europe” within a fortnight.

She must win the approval of the highly fragmented European Parliament, where there have been grumblings about the deal to appoint her, which was cooked up by EU national leaders over three days of tortuous summit wrangling.

Juncker and von der Leyen -- the first woman to be named to the head of the EU’s executive arm -- embraced warmly for the cameras as they met at commission headquarters in Brussels, but neither made any comment.