European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen is delivering her State of the Union address in front of the EU Parliament.
“A norm on violence against women by the end of the year”
“By the end of the year we will promote a norm on violence against women. These are legal acts to prevent and protect both in the online and offline world,” von der Leyen announced.
“We will not tolerate hybrid attacks”
“We will never tolerate hybrid attacks to destabilize Europe”, said the president of the European Commission, referring in particular to the strategy of Belarus “to use people on the border with the EU”. Von der Leyen called for speeding up the process of managing migration to avoid “that other countries can use people to destabilize us”. “The new Pact on Migration and Asylum will offer us everything we need” to manage migration “but since the Commission presented the Pact” a year ago “progress has been slow and difficult” and “I ask the Chamber and the Member States to accelerate this process “.
Stop dependence on semiconductors from Asia
We will present a new European Chips Act on semiconductors to put an end to the “dependence on Asian production capacity” which poses “a problem of technological sovereignty” announced the president of the European Commission. “Semiconductors – he recalled – are those small chips that allow everything to work, from smartphones to electric scooters, from trains to entire smart factories. There is no digital without those chips” but “due to their lack, production is slowing despite the increase in global demand “, the president warned.
“Ban on products resulting from forced labor”
“Human rights are not for sale at any price”, emphasized von der Leyen, reiterating “the EU’s attention against forced labor” and anticipating that a ban on products resulting from forced labor is being sought.
“A summit with Macron on Defense”
There will be a “summit with the French President Emmanuel Macron on Defense,” said Von der Leyen, who on the topic of Defense “is not lacking capacity”, but politics is lacking. “The president also anticipated that Europe needs of a new cyber defense policy.
“One hundred million more aid for Afghans”
“We stand by the Afghans. We must do everything to avoid the risk of a great famine and a humanitarian disaster. For this we will increase our humanitarian aid for Afghanistan by 100 million euros, part of a new support package for the ‘Afghanistan “. the president announced.
New joint EU-NATO declaration
“There will be a new joint EU-NATO declaration by the end of the year,” said Von der Leyen.
“We faced the pandemic together”
“If I reflect on the past year and on the State of the Union, I see a strong soul in everything we do”. This was stated by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union address to the EU Parliament.
“In the main world health crisis we have joined together to ensure that all corners of Europe have lifesaving vaccines and we have proceeded with Next generation Eu and with the Green deal – he adds -. We have acted as a united Europe and we can be proud of this. “.
Long-term prosperity
With Next Generation Eu, the European Union will invest in both short-term recovery and long-term prosperity, Von der Leyen said. “It took 8 years to bring GDP in the euro area back to pre-crisis levels. This time we expect 19 countries to reach pre-pandemic levels this year. The others will follow next year. Growth in the euro area has exceeded both the US and China in the last quarter, but that’s just the beginning, “he said. “The lessons of the financial crisis” of ten years ago “could be a warning” because “at the time we had sung victory too soon” and this time “we will not make the same mistake: with Next Generation Eu we will invest both in the short-term recovery than in long-term prosperity, “explained Von der Leyen.
.