STRASBOURG — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday, reversing an earlier decision to skip the speech. The U-turn comes after Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho told POLITICO on Monday morning that von der Leyen would miss the address because of “prior commitments” in Brussels that day, including the presentation of a new child online safety law. In view of that, we managed to move the press conference by President von der Leyen and [Executive Vice President] Virkkunen to Strasbourg, also on Thursday morning,” Pinho said in a text message on Monday evening.
Carney is scheduled to attend von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech on Wednesday before addressing MEPs on Thursday, when he is expected to pitch a closer partnership with the EU as Ottawa fights a trade war with Washington. He will continue his European tour with meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The initial news that von der Leyen wouldn’t attend Carney’s address had caused uproar among some Members of the European Parliament. And as the President of the EU Commission, you decide not to show up? That’s more than bad manners.
It’s unacceptable,” said Social Democratic Belgian lawmaker Kathleen van Brempt. Barry Andrews, liberal Irish MEP chairing the development committee, said non-attendance was “surprising” and that von der Leyen had to explain the reasons for her decision.
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