The role of Ursula von der Leyen in modern European and world politics

Abstract

The role of Ursula von der Leyen in modern European continental and world politics is defined
in the given article. It was revealed that despite the low expectations regarding the prospects of her presidency of the European Commission after being elected in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen’s active management, especially the relatively successful result in overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and lobbying for the provision of comprehensive assistance to Ukraine after a full-scale invasion of Russia on February 24, 2022, made many European politicians, officials, as well as the public to properly assess her leadership qualities. Ursula von der Leyen has been criticized for not taking a strong stance on human rights violations in Azerbaijan, as well as the relatively brutal treatment of civilians and prisoners of war by the Azerbaijani military in Nagorno-Karabakh. The concept of "de-risking" with regard to China, proposed by von der Leyen in the spring of 2023 has been favorably evaluated by the administration
of the President of the United States of America Joe Biden. Although Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Beijing in April 2023 was not particularly successful, it received much more favorable reviews among EU member states than French President Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic efforts to further define EU-China relations. It has been also revealed that Ursula von der Leyen may face certain obstacles on the way of possible
re-election as President of the European Commission in 2024, however, taking into account the predominance of positive evaluations of her activities at the current stage, the chances of von der Leyen remaining as the head of the Commission are high, which is extremely important for Ukraine in the context of maintaining support for its European integration aspirations.