Von der Leyen warns of lengthy inflation battle and acute EU labour shortages

The European Commission president warned that labour shortages were now a key issue facing the EU

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, told MEPs a long fight against inflation lay ahead Picture: Ronny Hartmann/AFP via Getty Images

Ursula Von Der Leyen has said that inflation will not return to the target 2 per cent rate for some time as she warned of acute labour shortages across the European Union.

In her annual state of the union address, European Commission noted how energy prices had already fallen substantially over recent months, and said that Europe was facing a dramatically improved situation this winter when compared with last.

Still, she said the bloc was ...