(CN) — In her first State of the Union speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday laid out a vision of Europe as a world leader in tackling climate change and upholding an international order built around the rule of law, free trade and human rights.
Coming amid multiple crises inside and outside the European Union's borders, von der Leyen's speech tried to offer an optimistic view of the bloc's future and offered a roadmap reflecting the set of priorities emerging among European political circles, such as catching up with the United States and China on digital technology, safeguarding a progressive free-trade world order, curbing global warming through a “European Green Deal” and making the EU a stronger force on the world stage.
Von der Leyen made a further reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 a policy centerpiece while also denouncing human rights abuses by Belarus, China and Russia and scolding the United Kingdom for seeking to break an agreement it reached with the EU over Brexit and the future of Northern Ireland.
In a rebuff to U.S. President Donald Trump, she also said Europe will never take a “Europe First” approach and that it was time to rebuild the transatlantic alliance. However, in a nod to Trump's allegations that international agencies are skewed against the United States, she said the EU needs to take the lead in seeking to reform international bodies, in particular the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization. She did not offer specifics about how those institutions need to be changed.
Her speech – delivered in three languages she speaks, English, German and French – was given inside a largely empty European Parliament building in Brussels with those in attendance wearing masks. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the European Parliament, one of the world's largest elected bodies with 705 members, is restricting the number of parliamentarians who can sit in the chamber at the same time.
Von der Leyen, a former German defense minister once touted as German Chancellor Angela Merkel's successor, is the first female president of the European Commission, the EU's executive branch. The commission drafts legislation, issues and enforces regulations and oversees the distribution of EU funds.
“There is no more urgent need for acceleration than when it comes to the future of our fragile planet,” she said in announcing a goal of reducing carbon emissions by at least 55% instead of a previous target of 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
She said cutting emissions by that much would put the EU “firmly on track” to meet Europe's commitments under the Paris climate agreement to reduce heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. Her announcement was welcomed by environmentalists, but many said even more drastic actions are necessary to rein in global warming.
“While much of the world’s activity froze during lockdowns and shutdowns, the planet continued to get dangerously hotter,” she said. “We see it all around us: from homes evacuated due to glacier collapse on the Mont Blanc, to fires burning through Oregon, to crops destroyed in Romania by the most severe drought in decades.”
The environment and global warming have climbed up the political agenda in Europe and Green parties are seeing a surge of support in Germany, Belgium and Austria.
Von der Leyen has made her carbon reduction plan, the European Green Deal, central to her administration. The plan centers on closing down coal-powered facilities and increasingly getting energy from renewable sources and hydrogen. The EU is also looking at new taxes on carbon.
She also spent a good deal of her speech on another key area for her administration: the need to boost Europe's digital capacity. She said the EU needs to expand access to fast internet in rural Europe, speed up 5G technology and boost artificial intelligence. She added the commission plans to invest in building a European cloud-computing system and spend $9.4 billion on new supercomputers.