chaired this Wednesday, for the first time, the meeting of the College of Commissioners. Ribera has had to assume this role at the first meeting of Commission officials held this year due to the absence of the president, Ursula von der Leyen, who suffers from pneumonia from which she is recovering. In principle, this will be the only meeting led by the number two of the Community Executive for this reason, since Von der Leyen plans to recover her agenda next week.
In the first days of 2025, he canceled his “external agenda”, although he would maintain daily contact with his team. On Monday, however, it was confirmed that Von der Leyen had asked Ribera, the number two official in her Executive, to take charge of this week’s meeting.
This news came days after the German publication The mirror to disclose that Von der Leyen had been admitted to a hospital in Hannover, something that the Commission’s spokespersons had not reported. When the information emerged, they did point out that she had already left the hospital, that she had not needed to use a respirator and that she had not been admitted to intensive care at any time.
In principle, this Wednesday’s agenda marked the approval of the Commission’s economic program, named Competitiveness Compassone of the priorities that the European Union has set for the coming years so as not to continue losing ground in this field to the United States and China. However, its delay was announced days ago until the end of this month, specifically on January 29. Finally, this College has approved a plan to prevent cyberattacks in the health sector.
Von der Leyen, who this Wednesday learned the news that she has been awarded this year’s Charlemagne Prize, plans to travel next week to Strasbourg, where there is a plenary session of the European Parliament. The next meeting of the College of Commissioners will also be held in the French city, as is customary when the European Parliament meets there. In addition, the German is planned to go to Davos (Switzerland), where the World Economic Forum is being held.
