Von der Leyen to Unveil EU Priorities in Strasbourg Address

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will set out her priorities for the coming year and her vision for the European Union in a major address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

The contents of the speech have been kept under wraps, and political groups in the assembly have lobbied to have their own priorities and favoured projects reflected in it.

The address is nonetheless expected to touch on artificial intelligence, climate change and the wildfires that swept Europe this summer, as well as online protection for children, Russia's war on Ukraine, conflict across the Middle East and international trade tensions.

A year ago, von der Leyen warned that Europe had to assert its independence as tariffs were imposed on the bloc and the Trump administration criticised its migration policies, at one point warning of "civilisational erasure."

"Europe is in a fight," she said at the time. "A fight for our values and our democracies." She added that the battle lines of a new world order based on power were being drawn, and that the EU "must fight for its place in a world in which many major powers are either ambivalent or openly hostile to Europe."

The event has become an annual ritual modelled on the State of the Union addresses delivered by U.S. presidents to Congress. It is not broadcast widely, and few of the EU's 450 million citizens across its 27 member countries are expected to tune in.

It remains a carefully crafted communications exercise staged before often applauding lawmakers and is valued most by EU insiders. Von der Leyen tends to close with her rallying cry: "Long Live Europe."

The themes are routinely aspirational, covering her hopes and plans for the commission — the EU's increasingly powerful executive arm — over the coming year, though they often lack detail. Critics say the commission's work is opaque.

Eric Maurice, an analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank, cautioned against using the speech "to placate political groups" or "to raise the Commission President's profile and extend the Commission's political and institutional domain."

"The EU is facing the crumbling of all the premises on which it was built. The rules-based order with benevolent free-trade and U.S. friendship and support is disappearing," Maurice said.

The commission proposes laws applied across the 27 member states and monitors compliance with existing ones. It negotiates trade on behalf of all members and serves as Europe's top antitrust investigator.

At its head is the 67-year-old former German defence minister, who has become a prominent figure at summits with world leaders despite being a political appointee who has not been elected to Europe's top post.

Von der Leyen has accumulated influence over seven years in office by securing vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, managing the energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion and supporting Ukraine through the war.

She also appears to have the begrudging respect of Trump. She, her chief of cabinet and her trade commissioners have worked to limit the damage to the European economy from Trump's tariff war.

At the same time, the Trump administration has been riled by the commission's crackdown on Big Tech companies, many of them American, over perceived flouting of Europe's data regulations.

Ahead of the speech, the commission has set up a website dedicated to its leader and the event and has been distributing brochures listing its achievements over the past 12 months. The list is considerable and includes sealing new trade agreements, boosting economic competitiveness, cutting energy costs, spurring defence investment, providing billions of euros in support to Ukraine and slapping sanctions on hundreds of Russian officials and organisations.