EU chief von der Leyen to isolate after Covid-19 exposure
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EU chief Ursula von der Leyen's driver tested positive for Covid-19.
PHOTO: AFP
BRUSSELS (AFP) - European Union (EU) chief Ursula von der Leyen will miss a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, including a speech by France's President Emmanuel Macron, after a possible Covid-19 exposure, she said on Monday (Jan 17).
The president of the European Commission had been due to attend several meetings at the assembly's Strasbourg seat for its first full session of the year and of France's six-month EU presidency.
"My driver has tested positive for Covid-19. Regretfully, I must, therefore, cancel my participation... I am returning to Brussels," she tweeted.
Von der Leyen's decision, in line with current Belgian coronavirus regulations, also means that she will not be able to attend in person a meeting of her college of commissioners scheduled for Tuesday in Strasbourg.
But the political highlights of the week will be tributes to the Parliament's late president, Italian social democrat David Sassoli, who died in hospital last week, and the Members of the European Parliament's (MEPs) election of his successor in the speaker's chair.
It will also be a set-piece event of France's EU presidency, and unofficially of Mr Macron's re-election campaign, with the French leader addressing the MEPs on Wednesday on his vision for the future of the union.
