Ursula von der Leyen (born 8 October 1958) is a German politician and physician who has served as President of the European Commission since 2019. She is a member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its affiliated European political party, the European People’s Party (EPP).

Political career

Von der Leyen served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding positions in Angela Merkel’s cabinet, most recently as Federal Minister for Defence. In March 2024, the EPP elected her as its Spitzenkandidat to lead its campaign for the 2024 European Parliament elections. She was re-elected to head the Commission in July 2024.

European Commission

The first von der Leyen Commission was in office from 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2024. The second von der Leyen Commission has been in office since 1 December 2024 and consists of one commissioner from each EU member state, with von der Leyen serving as president.

Early life and education

She was born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, to German parents. Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was one of the first European civil servants. She was brought up bilingually in German and French and moved to Germany in 1971. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1978 and acquired her medical licence from Hanover Medical School in 1987. She married Heiko von der Leyen, a German physician, and lived for four years in the United States with her family in the 1990s.

Relevance

As President of the European Commission, von der Leyen is a senior European Union official involved in the EU’s political response to security concerns on European soil.