The EU remains slow, almost unpredictable, for its own reason, but it has become epic, solemn and direct in its speeches. At least in those of the President of the European Commission. “Yesterday’s peace is gone and we have no time to continue in nostalgiabecause what matters is how we face the present,” he declared this Wednesday during a debate in the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where he also recalled that the use of frozen Russian assets could be “a turning point” for Ukraine.
This is the real obstacle that the EU currently has when it comes to strengthening its role at the negotiating table. The main suspicion is that of Belgium, which is home to 62% of these assetsbut against this path – there are a total of 210 billion and 90,000 will be needed in two years for kyiv – Italy, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have also already positioned themselves. This will also be the central question of the European Council summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
Furthermore, Von der Leyen had an indirect message for Trump… and for his allies within the Union. “Europe cannot allow itself to be defined by the worldviews of others or accept outdated assumptions. “The post-war order has disappeared” and this is why the Union “must adapt” to the new reality, as it has been saying for several years.
“We know the threats we face and we will face them. This means that we must be prepared. We must develop and deploy new capabilities to be able to fight a modern hybrid war. Here too, we are moving mountains. After decades of insufficient investment, we are changing course”, commented the head of the Community Executive, who at the same time wanted to justify what has already been achieved. “We are approaching a new era: Europe’s energy independence from Russia. Russian gas imports have fallen from 45% at the start of the war to 13% today; coal imports, from 51% to zero; and in the case of crude oil, from 26% to 2%,” he recalled.
But in this context, he wanted to push countries to continue supporting kyiv at a key moment. “There is no more important European defense act than supporting the defense of Ukraine. The coming days will be a crucial step in achieving this. It is up to us to choose how to finance Ukraine’s fight. We know the urgency. It’s extreme“, he said before the plenary session, where he told MPs that what is at stake is not only defense, but also democracy: “The freedom to decide and make laws for ourselves, to act as we want, to pursue our own interests and our own associations. The freedom to vote for who we want, without being pressured or subjected to a torrent of manipulated information. The freedom to choose diversity, democracy. But above all the freedom to live as we wish: in the European way”, he concluded.
And he also had time to react to the perception that the United States now has, under the mandate of Donald Trump, of the EU and which is reflected in the security strategy presented by Washington. “Europe has lost its share of global GDP, going from 25% in 1990 to 14% today,” recalls Von der Leyen in the document. “But what is not written is that the figures for the United States follow the same path: from 22% in 1990 to 14% today. It is therefore not the story of an economy on one side or the other of the Atlantic. This is the story of change in the global economy“.
“If we take China alone, its share of global GDP has increased from 4% in 1990 to 20% today. This is why the United States has long been clear about how its interests and strategic priorities are changing as China grows. The point I want to make is this: This strategy is not the cause of the disruption Europe faces around the world. This is a symptom of the reality of today’s world,” said the President of the Commission.
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