Making Her-story - the election of Ursula von der Leyen marks history with the first female head of the European Commission
ADVERTISEMENTThe European Parliament in Strasbourg - a place, where this week, history was made.
MEPs elected the first female Commission President but only just.
Ursula Von Der Leyen - little known outside of Germany until a couple of weeks ago will replace Jean-Claude Juncker in the Autumn.
But, my word, was it close - only nine votes more than the 374 required, no wonder she told me of her relief afterwards. She also made a lot of promises:
"Listen, these topics are so important for the EU, for example the goal of being climate neutral in 2050, it's crucial for our planet, we are running out of time, so we do have to have ambitious goals, or for example creating the framework of minimun wage, many, many countries do have them, we have models that show, that prove that it works. When we have trade unions and employers unions collectively bargaining a minimun wage as a second example. So, this is politics where people want us to deliver in the EU and we should be ambitious," von der Leyen told Euronews.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given how close the result was, MEPs were spilt down the middle of her election.
Meanwhile back in Brussels, Foreign Ministers met to discuss Turkey attempts to drill for oil of Cyprus.
Deciding to call off high-level political meetings, suspend negotiations on an aviation deal and reduce EU accession funding earmarked for Turkey.
"We have to put the negotiotians back on track. Just put sanctions... Sanctions have a deterrent fundamental effect, but once they have been adopted they tend to lose their deterrence. Actually one must think twice before adopting them. It's important to start to talk again. It's time of diplomacy," said Josep Borrell, the incoming head of EU diplomacy.
Foreign Minsters also talked Iran - and in a desperate attempt to keep the deal alive the EU concluded Iran's recent breaches are not significant and can be reversed, here is what Federica Mogherini told MEPs
"We want to see Iran going back to full compliance as being in these years, but we note that technically all the steps that have been taken and that we regert have been taken are reverseble, so we hoipe and we invite Iran to reverse these steps," the outgoing head of EU diplomacy explained.
Next week attention will turn to London - where on Tuesday it will be announced if Boris Johnson (almost certainly) or Jeremy Hunt will become the next British PM, both of whom have said they are prepared to leave the EU with no deal.
That and much more from across Europe with continuing coverage on Euronews and Euronews.com