European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen flew in a private jet 23 times last year, much more than the 27 European commissioners, given that according to the commissioners’ code of conduct, private jets should only be used in exceptional cases, dpa reported on Thursday.

“It is a shame that the president of the Commission continues to rely on private jets in the context of the climate crisis,” European Parliament member Martin Schirdevan, leader of Germany’s far-left Die Linke party, told the Der Spiegel daily.

EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell traveled by private jet just twice in 2023, while the European Commission as a whole resorted to the device just 29 times in the same period, according to a Brussels document requested by a German MEP.

He said Ursula von der Leyen’s list of private flights from 2023 includes three flights between Brussels in Belgium and Strasbourg in northern France, the cities where two seats of the European Parliament are located.

There is a rail link between the two cities and the journey takes less than five hours, Shirdevan said in comments published by Der Spiegel on Wednesday.

The commissioners’ code of conduct states that “all options should be carefully considered so that air taxi is only a last resort”.

Members of the Commission and its staff should not be allowed to board a plane to destinations where they can reach by train in six hours at most, the German MEP also said.

“It’s shameless to ask people who don’t have a lot of money to save energy while you fly on a private plane from A to B,” he summed up.