EU Fights to Restore Faith in Leaders After Several Blunders
- EU chief censured on vaccines, Irish border and Russia trip
- Ursula von der Leyen appears before parliament Wednesday
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When Ursula von der Leyen’s foreign policy chief was humiliated by Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov in front of TV cameras on Friday, it capped a torrid few days for the European Union chief.
Battered by the bloc’s torpid Covid vaccine rollout and a sudden unforced error over export restrictions that handed the U.K. the political upper hand for the first time since Brexit began, von der Leyen was in a tough spot even before the embarrassment in Moscow.