02/12/2019 (Agence Europe) – The new President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will travel to Ethiopia from 6 to 8 December for her first trip outside the EU as President of the institution she heads, she told the press on Sunday 1 December, on the occasion of her taking office. “I have decided to make my first trip to Africa outside the European Union and I will go to Addis Ababa on Friday to meet African Union representative Moussa Faki, Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopian president Sahle-Work Zewde, the only woman at the head of an African country.” On Monday, Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said that the choice of this trip “shows the importance it attaches to the partnership between the African Union and the European Union”. (AN)