Last Wednesday, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivered her first State of the Union speech, addressed in front of the European Parliament in Brussels. In her speech, she outlines the union’s goals for the upcoming 12 months. She delved into the main priorities the EU must tackle first. These were building a stronger European Health Union due to the Pandemic. “Where there is a need to strengthen the crisis preparedness and management of cross-border health issues. This will show Europeans that our Union is there to protect them all”.
Furthermore, in her speech von der Leyen mentioned that the Commission created the SURE programme, which so far avoided mass unemployment in Europe, in doing so 40 million people applied for short-time work schemes. Furthermore, 16 countries will be receiving 90 billion euros from SURE giving a peace of mind for families to put food on the table or to pay rent, for businesses.
Moreover, throughout her speech she revealed the EU’s remaining aims these being the European Green Deal, where the European Commission is proposing to increase the 2030 target for emission reduction to at least 55%, Digital Decade, where Europe needs to come up with a common plan and clear goals, and a Global Europe, “The future will be what we make it. And Europe will be what we want it to be. Build it up to make it stronger and to build the world that we want to live in”.
ESO - European Studies Organisation 