Von der Leyen, Costa and Mesola took private jet to Luxembourg event
The trio were expected to appear jointly in the city to commemorate Europe Day.
The trip took place on Friday and saw the presidents of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament visit the Robert Schuman house, accompanied by Luxembourgish Prime Minister Luc Frieden.
The rationale for flying rather than driving to Luxembourg - roughly 200 km from Brussels - was mainly prompted by the appearance of Friedrich Merz, the new Chancellor of Germany, in the Belgian capital.
Merz chose Europe Day to make his first visit to Brussels since taking office. He met separately with Costa, von der Leyen and Metsola, in that order, and held press conferences with Costa and von der Leyen, taking questions from journalists.
The bilateral meetings stretched over the entire morning, leaving the three presidents with an extremely tight itinerary to move to Luxembourg City and attend the commemorative event, pencilled for early afternoon, at the same time.
The teams in Brussels then chose to ditch the car option and resort to air charter, the costs of which were shared among the three institutions.
"Due to the scheduling constraints of the three presidents and the prime minister, the only travelling option to allow all of them to attend the commemoration of the Schuman Declaration together and on time was to take a charter flight," Paula Pinho, the Commission's chief spokesperson, said on Monday.
"This is the reason why, exceptionally, this was the option taken to get there."
The offices of Costa and Metsola voiced a similar message.
The event in Luxembourg, hosted at the prime minister's invitation to mark the 75th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, started in the early afternoon and lasted about two hours. The four leaders visited the house where Robert Schuman, the French politician who delivered the declaration on 9 May 1950, grew up.
Schuman's proposal to create a new authority to manage the production of coal and steel from France and West Germany paved the way for the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and kick-started the project of European integration.
Luxembourg was one of the six founding members of the ECSC and served as host of the independent High Authority, the precursor of the European Commission. During Friday's trip, the four leaders also visited the old seat of the High Authority.
Once the event was over, von der Leyen and Costa returned to Brussels using the rented plane while Metsola and her team flew commercial to Cyprus.
Although air flights are frequent for long-distance travel, using the same option for such a short-distance trip is likely to raise eyebrows, given the EU's commitment to sustainability and the pressure from member states to control expenses.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
Macron announces €6.5 billion in extra military spending in next two years
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, July 13 announced €6.5 billion in extra military spending in the next two years because of new and unprecedented threats, from Russia to terrorists to online attacks. The French leader laid out the spending plans in a sweeping speech calling for intensified efforts to protect Europe. He said France will aim to spend €64 billion in annual defense spending in 2027, the last year of his second term. That would be double the €32 billion in annual spending when he became president in 2017. "Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously," Macron said, in the French president's traditional speech to the military on the eve of the Bastille Day national holiday. "To be free in this world we must be feared. To be feared we must be powerful," he said. He insisted that France can find the money to spend more on the military, even as it tries to bring down massive debts. Conservative and far-right parties have supported greater defense spending, while left-wing parties accuse the government of sacrificing hard-won social welfare benefits for military spending. Europe is in danger because of Russia's war in Ukraine and wars in the Middle East, and because "the United States has added a form of uncertainty," Macron said. He also cited online disinformation campaigns by unnamed foreign governments and propaganda operations targeting children, in "the screen era." Macron also ordered France's top military and defense officials to start a "strategic dialogue" with European partners about the role that France's nuclear arsenal could play in protecting Europe. France and Britain agreed recently to cooperate on nuclear arsenal issues.
France 24
7 hours ago
- France 24
EU chief delays retaliation for US tariffs in search of deal
US President Donald Trump on Saturday threw months of painstaking negotiations into disarray by announcing he would hammer the 27-nation bloc with the sweeping tariffs if no agreement is reached by August 1. "The United States has sent us a letter with measures that would come into effect unless there is a negotiated solution, so we will therefore also extend the suspension of our countermeasures until early August," von der Leyen told journalists. "At the same time, we will continue to prepare for the countermeasures so we're fully prepared," she added. The European Commission president insisted that the European Union has "always been very clear that we prefer a negotiated solution. This remains the case, and we will use the time that we have now till August 1". The move by von der Leyen will spur hope that Trump's latest threat -- in which he also targeted Mexico -- has not killed off the progress made in negotiations so far between Brussels and Washington. The European Union's current suspension of its retaliation over US steel and aluminium tariffs had been set to expire overnight Monday to Tuesday. Brussels has readied duties on US goods worth around 21 billion euros ($24 billion) in response to the levies Trump slapped on metal imports earlier this year. But it announced in April it was holding off on those measures to give space to find a broader trade agreement with the Trump administration. "Since the very beginning, we have worked and now are ready to respond with countermeasures. We've prepared for this, and we can respond with countermeasures if necessary," von der Leyen said. 'Hand remains outstretched' EU trade ministers are set to meet Monday in Brussels to discuss the bloc's response to Trump's latest move -- and crucially how strong a line to take with Washington. Germany's finance minister Lars Klingbeil said on Sunday that "serious and solution-oriented negotiations" with the United States were still necessary, but added that if they fail, the European Union would need "decisive countermeasures to protect jobs and businesses in Europe". "Our hand remains outstretched but we won't accept just anything," Klingbeil told daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. That came after French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urged the European Commission -- which negotiates on behalf of all EU countries -- to "resolutely defend European interests". Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has unleashed sweeping stop-start tariffs on allies and competitors alike, roiling financial markets and raising fears of a global economic downturn. But his administration is coming under pressure to secure deals with trading partners after promising a flurry of agreements. So far, US officials have only unveiled two pacts, with Britain and Vietnam, alongside temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties with China. The European Union, alongside dozens of other economies, had been set to see its US tariff level increase from a baseline of 10 percent on July 9, but Trump pushed back the deadline to August 1. In a letter published on Saturday, Trump cited the United States's trade imbalance with the bloc as justification for the new 30-percent levies. The EU tariff is markedly steeper than the 20-percent levy Trump had unveiled in April -- before hitting pause as markets went into meltdown.
LeMonde
8 hours ago
- LeMonde
New Caledonia: A lesson in responsibility
One year after the riots of May 13, 2024 – which left 14 dead and plunged New Caledonia into economic chaos – few could have imagined the scene that unfolded at dawn on Saturday, July 12, behind closed doors at a hotel in the western Paris suburb of Bougival. Two sides who had traded insults and refused all dialogue finally agreed to set aside their quarrels and jointly explore a new institutional path. If the process reaches completion, the Pacific archipelago will become a "State of New Caledonia" within the French Republic, endowed with certain sovereign powers, though not all for the time being. This sui generis construction was the result of a negotiation whose process encapsulated the entire complexity of the New Caledonia issue. The magnitude of the commitment made at the last minute after 10 days of extremely tense discussions led by French Minister for Overseas Territories Manuel Valls is truly historic. It offers a lesson in responsibility that many, in these troubled times, could learn from. Of course, caution is required, as nothing has been finalized yet: The pro- and anti-independence groups who have taken the risk of committing to this path will now have to persuade their respective bases. This will be difficult for both sides, as the three referendums on self-determination held between 2018 and 2021 to conclude the cycle of the Matignon and Nouméa agreements, that began 40 years earlier amid similar violence, have, in reality, resolved nothing. By producing increasingly narrow majorities against independence, those referendums only heightened tensions between the loyalists, who have continually tried to press their advantage with the government, and the Kanaks, for whom the process initiated in 1988 by then French prime minister Michel Rocard to overcome the tragedy of the Ouvéa cave hostage taking could only lead to independence. On both sides, the most radical members will naturally be tempted to see the glass as half empty. The disastrous economic and social situation in which the archipelago currently finds itself nonetheless calls for responsibility. Weakened by its divisions and its inability to meet the population's expectations, and under intense pressure from economic circles, New Caledonia's largely discredited political class needs to move forward. The Bougival talks offer them a way out. The stakeholders who are choosing to engage are taking significant risks, but they also stand to gain a great deal. Once the new institutional process is underway – with the ambition to get there quickly, as soon as next year – further steps toward more or less independence will depend on the balance of political power that emerges through elections in the archipelago. Citizens of New Caledonia, through local elections, will thus play a crucial role in determining the future. As for the final transfers of sovereign powers, they will depend on a qualified majority in the New Caledonian Congress – and not on the French state. The fact that an economic reform pact accompanies the process is another sign of maturity. The crisis in New Caledonia's nickel sector, which is far less competitive than nickel mined in China or Indonesia, has shattered the illusion of easy revenue that both sides relied on for too long. A new and original model for development must be built, one that requires easing tensions and maintaining, for at least a few years, strong financial support from the French state. The vision set out in Bougival, initiated by a handful of courageous individuals, does not seem completely out of reach.
