EU President visits Spain

The newly elected president of the European Commission, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen will visit Spain this week and hold a working lunch with the president of the acting Government, Pedro Sánchez and acting Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell.

Ursula von der Leyen is visiting Spain as part of a European tour of member states to assemble her new Executive Committee.

The Spanish Commissioner Sánchez is also the Vice-President of the Commission and a high representative, and has been tasked with assisting in the recruitment process. Under promises given during her election campaign, van der Leven requested that her cabinet be formed of 50 per cent male and 50 per cent female members, with each member state offering up two candidates,one of each gender.

However, so far the confirmed members are the majority male, with only Malta represented by a female candidate.

Van der Leven faces an uphill task committing to her pledge as historically since the European Commission first assembled in 1958, there have been a total of 183 members, out of which only 35 have been female, less than 20 per cent