BRUSSELS, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The European Union leaders proposed on Tuesday Ursula von der Leyen, the German Defense Minister, to head the European Commission for the next five years.
If confirmed by the European Parliament, von der Leyen, a member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union - the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel - would be the woman to take the most important post of EU institutions.
She has been serving as German's first female defense chief since 2013. Prior to that, she served as Minister of Labor and Social Affairs from 2009 to 2013 and Minister of Family Affairs and Youth from 2005 to 2009.
Before entering politics, she was a trained physician in Germany, prior to which she studied economics in Germany and the UK.
Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, as a native French and German speaker, von der Leyen also speaks fluent English.
She is married to Heiko von der Leyen, a professor of medicine, and they have seven children. She spent several years as a full-time housewife when her husband was in the Stanford University.
Her father Ernst Albrecht, was a senior civil servant in the European Union before getting involved in the state politics in Lower Saxony. He went on to become the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990.
CONTROVERSIES
The career of von der Leyen is not without controversies.
Her 1991 doctoral dissertation was challenged as involving plagiarism. She denied that. Later, a panel at Medical University of Hanover ruled that the dissertation includes "obvious flaws, particularly in the introduction," but "the pattern of the plagiarism does not indicate a fraudulent intent." She got to keep her doctoral degree after that.
As defense minister, von der Leyen oversaw the German armed forces which went through scandals ranging from far-right extremists to cost over-runs, as well as failing military equipment.
