Ursula von der Leyen: beyond redemption
Ursula von der Leyen: beyond redemption George M. Georgiou To be accused of impropriety on one occasion may be regarded as a misfortune but to be accused on four occasions looks like carelessness. ( With apologies to Oscar Wilde) If there is one individual who, more than anyone else, symbolises the ineptitude of the European Commission then it is surely the Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen (hereafter, VDL). Questions about VDL’s lack of probity first surfaced in 2015 when she was accused of plagiarising her doctoral dissertation. She was eventually cleared of the accusations but as the BBC reported on 9 March 2016, the president of the Hannover Medical School, Christopher Baum, conceded ...