By LORNE COOK
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a major state of the union speech on Wednesday addressing the challenges facing the world’s biggest trading bloc and laying out her vision for tackling them.
The commission has enthusiastically billed her speech — modeled on the annual State of the Union addresses to Congress by U.S. presidents — as “a milestone event for European democracy.”
During her address, to be delivered to lawmakers during a session that could run for around three hours at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen is expected to announce new spending targets and policies for the years ahead. Few details have been released about what she might say.
Fabian Zuleeg, Chief Executive at the European Policy Centre think-tank, said that he expects the speech to be significant and closely watched in Europe.
“A lot has happened over the last year. A lot of things which are more on the negative side rather than on the positive side. So people will be looking at how will she react to that,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“People want to know not only what are the policy initiatives, but what is the mood, what is the feeling, where Europe is going to go in the next years,” he said.
An increasingly powerful EU executive
The commission is the European Union’s executive arm. It proposes laws that impact the lives of around 450 million people across 27 countries, and monitors whether those rules are respected.
Under von der Leyen’s stewardship, the commission has pushed hard in trade talks with the United States to try to secure favorable terms and limit the economic damage inflicted by President Donald Trump’s global tariff war.
Her department has driven efforts to support Ukraine – now in the fourth year of a war seen as an existential threat to Europe – and to help the EU arm itself against an aggressive Russia whose president shows little interest in peace talks.
The commission is also Europe’s top antitrust regulator and has angered tech companies — and Trump — by imposing massive fines on firms over competition concerns. Last week, it slapped a $3.5 billion fine on Google for breaching the rules.
“Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer will not stand for it!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social on Friday. “As I have said before, my Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand.”
At the same time, Trump has heaped praised on von der Leyen, and the 66-year-old former German defense minister has become a regular feature at summits with leaders around the world, despite her role as a political appointee not elected to office.
The commission has gained power as the strength of governments in Europe’s traditional driving forces France and Germany have waned. Her speech in Strasbourg takes place just two days after yet another French government fell.
Criticism likely after a no confidence vote
But the EU’s most influential official is also likely to hear fresh criticism from lawmakers, two months after surviving a rare no confidence vote against a commission president in the parliament.
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FILE – From left, European Council President Antonio Costa, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrive for an EU Summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
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FILE – From left, European Council President Antonio Costa, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrive for an EU Summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
A nebulous mix of claims were raised against her, including over her private text messaging with the chief executive of vaccine maker Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic, and allegations of misuse of EU funds and election interference.
She won comfortably but didn’t turn up for the vote. Taking to social media, von der Leyen posted: “As external forces seek to destabilize and divide us, it is our duty to respond in line with our values. Thank you, and long live Europe.”
On the eve of her speech, European public interest groups and trade unions criticized her over plans for “an unprecedented wave of drastic cuts to regulations protecting labor, social, and human rights, as well as digital rights, and the environment.”
They claim the commission is rolling back protections under the guise of cutting bureaucratic red tape.
Mark Carlson in Brussels contributed.
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