Ursula von der Leyen honored with award for contributions to European unity

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen received the International Charlemagne Prize, an annual award for contributions to European unity, on Thursday as the 27-nation bloc confronts Russia's war against Ukraine, the Trump administration's trade war and security issues across the continent.

The European Union's most high-profile political figure, von der Leyen was called "the embodiment of the European spirit" by King Felipe VI of Spain during Thursday's ceremony in Aachen, Germany.

Last year, European Parliament lawmakers reelected her to a second five-year term as president of the EU's powerful executive arm.

The commission proposes legislation for the EU's 27 member countries — and its 450 million people — and ensures that the rules governing the world's biggest trading bloc are respected. It's made up of a College of Commissioners with a range of portfolios similar to those of government ministers, including agriculture, economic, competition, security and migration policy.

After coming to office in 2019, von der Leyen led the EU drive to secure COVID-19 vaccines and has been a major supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia. With governments weakened in France and Germany at the time, she sought to play a greater role in the bloc's affairs.

The Trump administration and Europe

The Spanish king and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also attended Thursday's ceremony, pushed for stronger European defense as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to pull back America's protection commitments to the continent, upending the post-World War II order that has formed the basis for global stability and security.

"A clear message is coming out of Washington: Europeans ought to do more to provide for the defense of their own continent," Felipe said. "We should not underestimate how consequential this message is. There are few alive today that have lived in a Europe where the U.S., the United States, was not the dominant security provider."

Merz, whose election earlier this month was seen as a reemergence of Germany's status as a diplomatic and economic heavyweight, brought up U.S. Vice President JD Vance's comments at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year. Vance, "in his own very special way," confronted what Europeans stand for, Merz said.

Vance at the time complained about the state of democracy and free speech in Europe, and lambasted German political parties — days before a national election — for their so-called "firewall" against working with far-right parties.

"We actually stand for what we have been able to develop, to design, what we have actually fought for during centuries -- and despite many backlashes and disasters -- that we actually defend what is dear to us and important: freedom and democracy," Merz said.

Both leaders, as well as von der Leyen, emphasized the importance of responding to Trump's changing tariff policies with a single voice.

"We will never be a protectionist continent," von der Leyen said.

Recalling Anne Frank

The International Charlemagne Prize was first awarded in 1950 in Aachen. Charlemagne, considered the first unifier of Europe, had his favorite palace in the western German city in the late eighth century.

Aachen, on the Dutch border, is also famous as the birthplace of teenage diarist Anne Frank's mother, Edith Holländer. She and Otto Frank married in Aachen's synagogue, which was destroyed during the Kristallnacht — or the "Night of Broken Glass" — in 1938 in which the Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria.

The Frank family later left Germany upon Adolf Hitler's rise to power and eventually went into hiding in 1942 in a secret annex in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. They were later sent to concentration camps, where all but Otto Frank died.

Anne Frank's world-famous diary was published after the end of World War II.

In her speech Thursday, von der Leyen spoke about the Frank family, the synagogue and the city's importance to Europe's history — and its future.

"Today in Aachen, there's a new synagogue," von der Leyen said. "A symbol of rebirth, of resurrection, but also of remembrance. A painful reminder for Europe to be alert and withstand all those who sow hatred and want to divide our society."