Ursula van der Leyen has been narrowly elected as the next President of the European Commission, to replace Jean-Claude Juncker on 1 November. Her nomination was ratified by 383 votes to 327, just nine over the minimum, with concerns over budget scandals during her tenure as Defence Minister in Germany.
In her speech to the European Parliament before the vote, she said that she would seek to give MEPs the ‘right of initiative’, meaning that MEPs could draft and propose legislation.
Yesterday, German economic sentiment came in worse than expected, and down from -17.2 to -24.5 from last month. Nonetheless, the euro is up this morning, and the markets are looking forward to today’s construction output and inflation figures. There is also a raft of releases from the UK, which could well have a significant impact on the sterling-euro rates.
