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State of the Union Address 2025 by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission: statement by Bas Eickhout, Co-Chair of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) of the European Parliament

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Well presented today to actually take a tangible form. Thank you.

Now I give the floor to the co-president of the Green Groups.

Madam President, and also thank you Commissioner President.

Your call for unity has not really landed in your own group leader,

I have to say, but we will work on that, we will work on that.

And maybe that is also true because the summer was very painful.

Let's be honest, let's be honest,

the EU has to back Trump to be at the peace table and is forced to swallow US tariffs.

Putin's drones are flying over Poland and children are bombed and starved in Gaza, and we do nothing.

Europe has entered a world of power.

Yet we are we are still playing chess in a boxing match.

Business as usual is a recipe for another 3 years of humiliation.

Europe has to stop thinking as a market and start acting as a power, and I have to say.

I have to say today in your speech, you really changed in your tone.

You stepped up, you came up with proposals.

A bit the question is, of course, why now?

And what will follow, what will be now very important all the elements that you put on the table

here needs to be followed up by action and implementation, and we will work with you to deliver on that.

But there are also still inconsistencies that we have to address, because if we are going to step up as a leader

and step up in the ring to work on our own independence on security,

economy and digital services, we need to be consistent.

On security, you did a lot of proposals for the security of us and Ukraine,

and rightfully so, and we will support.

But security is more than weapons alone. This is about moral leadership.

And here we have to talk about Gaza.

Will we only start acting on Gaza when there is no Gaza left,

when all the buildings are razed to the ground and all peoples have fled or are being killed?

We need action, we need sanctions, and we do welcome the proposals that you made.

But we need more, we need to suspend the Association Agreement immediately,

we need an arms embargo, we need to stop imports from illegal settlements. Our credibility is at stake.

You gave signs to very well understand that, so now we also have to turn to the Council.

When is the Council finally going to understand that our credibility is at stake and is undermining our position in the world?

Security also means acting on climate change, and you mentioned the forest fires and you show the for fighters, and here,

really towards the EPP,

that you think you can slow down on climate action shows how disconnected you are from reality.

We need a thriving economy that stays within our planetary boundaries, and that's what we need to work on.

If we go to economic independence, we have to talk about energy.

You said we need to be energy independent, but at the same time,

you sign a Trump deal that delivers and promises a 750 billion investment in American energy.

American energy that is dirtier than we have seen before.

That to replace the Russian LNG gas that is only 10 billion per year for now,

these numbers don't add up.

This is really a crazy part of the deal with the United States, and it has to change.

Because we should invest this money in European renewables, in European industry,

because renewables are the worst enemy of fossil autocrats and are crucial for our competitiveness. That brings me to competitiveness.

Competitiveness is being framed too much as deregulation.

To the EPP, do you really want to fight America on their turf of deregulation?

We will never win from the United States on deregulation.

That's not the fight we should do.

We should fight on our own investments, investing in our workforce,

our education, our infrastructure, our green innovation.

That's what green investments have to mean,

and for that we also still need to change the Stability and Growth Pact to create that room for investments.

You took your initiatives, you mentioned the initiatives on how the Commission can work on demand or circular economy on clean tech, but I think it's very important to stress,

and you did it, the problem for Europe isn't the Green Deal, the problem is that Europe isn't delivering enough on the Green Deal.

On digital dependence, and I will conclude, Madam President, on digital dependence, you are also inconsistent, because on the one hand,

you say we will keep to DSA and DMA, but what about the AI Act?

You are saying that we want to invest in our own digital sovereignty, but what will this omnibus then do?

We will make sure that your omnibus will not undermine our own digital sovereignty,

and for that, by the way, we still need a digital services tax proposal.

To conclude, we need to step up our security, economic and digital policies.

We don't need deregulation, we need a confident European leadership and ambitious plans, and Mr.

Weber, for that, the shouting showed very clearly, you cannot work with them,

so if you want unity, work with the center.

For me, For me,

Europe has always stood for freedom.

We need security and independence to defend just that, not the freedom for shareholders to maximize the profits, not the freedom for companies to use cancer causing chemicals, not the freedom to disregard human rights,

the freedom to be yourself, express your ideas, freedom from poverty, war and dictatorship,

freedom for our children to live on a healthy planet, that's where I want to see this Commission fighting for, starting today.

Thank you Can I get the floor.

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