URSULA VON DER LEYEN of Germany won confirmation as the next president of the European Commission, becoming the first woman set to assume Europe’s most powerful policy-making post.

The German defense minister received the European Parliament’s endorsement Tuesday to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg after pledging to spur investment through bolder climate policies. The verdict means a job held for the past 15 years by the continent’s Christian Democratic party, a traditional backer of open markets, will stay in its hands for the next five.

The European Union assembly voted 383 to 327 in Strasbourg, France, to make von der Leyen commission chief starting Nov. 1, averting a confrontation with EU national leaders who unexpectedly tapped her two weeks ago after being deadlocked over official candidates fielded by the bloc’s main political families.

“Our most pressing challenge is keeping our planet healthy,” von der Leyen, an ally of German Chancellor Angel Merkel, told the EU Parliament before the vote. “This is the greatest responsibility and opportunity of our times.”

The Brussels-based commission is the 28-nation EU’s executive arm, which proposes and enforces European laws on everything from car emissions to energy pipelines. It also monitors national economies, negotiates trade deals, runs a diplomatic service, manages the bloc’s budget and acts as Europe’s competition authority.

Von der Leyen said Europe’s goal to cut greenhouse gases blamed for global warming by 40 percent in 2030 compared with 1990 was inadequate and vowed a reduction target as high as 55 percent. She also pledged to turn parts of the European Investment Bank, the EU’s lending arm, into a “climate bank” in a bid to unlock 1 trillion euros of investment (US$1.12 trillion) over the coming decade.

On commerce, von der Leyen warned about the dangers of protectionism and stressed the need to uphold the multilateral system underpinned by the World Trade Organization. “We defend the rules-based order because we know it is better for all of us,” she said.

Von der Leyen, 60, is the centerpiece of a European top-jobs package that reasserts the authority of the EU’s core countries — particularly Germany and France — as the bloc confronts Brexit, U.S. protectionism under President Donald Trump and renewed Russian muscle-flexing.

The package also puts International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde of France in the presidency of the European Central Bank, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel in the chair of EU summits and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell in the bloc’s top diplomatic post. Those three positions are also being vacated later this year.

(SD-Agencies)