The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenurged this Wednesday to respond “to the call of history”, as Europe did after the Second World War, by supporting the membership of Ukraine and other candidates in a future expansion of the EU with up to more than thirty partners.
“History now calls us to work to complete our Union”stated Von der Leyen in her last State of the Union speech of this legislature before the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in which she reviewed the great milestones of the last four years and urged to complete the work that remains pending before the next European elections in early June 2024, without revealing whether he plans to run for another term.
“The future of Ukraine lies in our Union”, but also that of the Western Balkans and Moldova, said the German politician, also aware of “how important the European perspective is for so many people in Georgia”, but avoided setting a date concrete for enlargement, thus distancing itself from the year 2030 that the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has planted.
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I believe that the next enlargement must also be a catalyst for progress.
“I believe that the next enlargement must also be a catalyst for progress,” she said, and was convinced that the EU “will also work with 30 or more” members.
Now, candidates will not be able to take shortcuts and will have to go through the “merit-based process” of accession, a path that “is not without obstacles” and that requires “hard work and leadership” to meet all the requirements and reforms marked by Brussels to assume the community acquis.
On the other hand, “if necessary”, Von der Leyen was open to changes in the European Union treaties for this new enlargement. “The time has come for Europe to think big and write its own destiny,” said the German in the final section of her speech dedicated to Ukraine, and in which there was a very emotional moment starring the Colombian writer Héctor Abad. .
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The author of “The oblivion that we will be”this year’s guest by Von der Leyen for his speech, drew a heartfelt ovation from a standing hemicycle, which applauded him while silently showing the photograph of the Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died in a Russian missile attack on the restaurant in which they both had dinner in Ukraine.
Europe “will keep alive the memory of Victoria and all the victims”Von der Leyen said to an excited Abbot.
The head of the Community Executive structured the rest of her speech in an introduction in which she reviewed the great milestones of her intense mandate, whose frenetic pace was marked by the final Brexit negotiations, the health and economic crisis of the pandemic and the war. of Russia against Ukraine, and in three other sections dedicated to the challenges of the European Green Deal, competitiveness and artificial intelligence.
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In his words, there was pride in having translated into concrete actions more than 90% of the political guidelines that he presented in his 2019 speech to seek the European Parliament’s approval for his nomination, which he barely achieved.
And now, with 300 days left until the next European elections, Von der Leyen urged the MEPs (whom in a slip of the tongue she called “honorable Member States” of the European Parliamentwhich caused a general laugh, including from herself) to gain “the trust of Europeans to respond to their aspirations and their anxieties” by completing “the work they have entrusted to us.”
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Otherwise, few ads. The most notable, the opening of an investigation against the subsidies that China grants to its electric vehicles, whose prices are “artificially low”, he said, due to these public aid and represent losses for European companies, which some analysts already see as the spark that could open a trade war with the Asian giant.
He also announced that Brussels will organize an international conference against human trafficking or that it will open the use of its high-performance computers to companies that develop artificial intelligence so that this technology evolves within ethical limits.
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He also called for “more dialogue and less polarization” in the debate between environmental protection and the future of agriculture in the European Union, an area where political tension has increased markedly in recent times, especially in his conservative political family.
In short, he advocated for “a continent reconciled with nature and that opens the way to new technologies. A continent united in freedom and peace”, which “answers the call of History”, he concluded.
EFE
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