Bucharest, 7 March 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The conservative European People's Party (EPP) nominated Ursula von der Leyen as its lead candidate for June's European Parliament elections on Thursday, as she seeks a second term as president of the European Commission.

Addressing the EPP before the vote, von der Leyen thanked her party colleagues for their trust and support and said that it was "the honour of a lifetime to serve" the European Union.

The EPP officially selected von der Leyen to lead the campaign at the party congress in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The commission president did not face any opposing candidates.

Von der Leyen is seeking a second term as president of the European Commission - the EU's executive arm - and is leading the EPP campaign as part of her bid. The party that performs best in the European Parliament election as a rule appoints the next president.

Currently the EPP commands a strong lead in the polls and von der Leyen stands a strong chance of securing a second term as a result.

Von der Leyen became the first women to lead the European Union's executive arm when she was appointed to the post in 2019, a job which places her in charge of about 32,000 EU employees as well as much of the bloc's political agenda.

Some members of the European Parliament remain sceptical of von der Leyen, in part because she was nominated for the post in 2019 by the leaders of EU countries despite not having stood last time as a lead candidate in the European elections.

As commission president, she frequently represents the bloc at almost all major international summits, such as the G7 and G20. The US magazine Forbes recently named von der Leyen the "most powerful woman in the world."

Von der Leyen's four years at the helm of the commission have been marked by the war in Ukraine - which saw the EU provide lethal military aid for the first time in its history - and the Covid-19 pandemic.

She also wields significant influence over EU trade, competition and environmental policy, and has backed efforts to make the bloc climate-neutral by 2050.

Before becoming commission president, von der Leyen held a series of ministerial posts under former German chancellor Angela Merkel, including family, labour and defence.

Von der Leyen, a trained physician and the mother of seven, was relatively unknown outside Germany when she was catapulted to the top job in 2019

The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Germany unanimously backed von der Leyen's bid for a second term last month.

Photo: EPA