ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのUrsula von der Leyen addresses the European Parliament in her second State of the Union speech

Mr President,
Honourable Members,

Many are the people who feel their lives have been on pause while the world has been on fast forward.

The speed of events and the enormity of the challenges are sometimes difficult to grasp.

This has also been a time of soul-searching. From people reassessing their own lives to wider debates on sharing vaccines and on shared values.

But as I look back on this past year, if I look at the state of the Union today, I see a strong soul in everything that we do.

It was Robert Schuman who said: Europe needs a soul, an ideal, and the political will to serve this ideal.

Europe has brought those words to life in the last twelve months.

In the biggest global health crisis for a century, we chose to go it together so that every part of Europe got the same access to a life-saving vaccine.

In the deepest global economic crisis for decades, we chose to go it together with NextGenerationEU.

And in the gravest planetary crisis of all time, again we chose to go it together with the European Green Deal.

We did that together as Commission, as Parliament, as 27 Member States. As one Europe. And we can be proud of it.

But corona times are not over.

There is still much grief in our society as the pandemic lingers. There are hearts we can never mend, life stories we can never finish and time we can never give back to our young. We face new and enduring challenges in a world recovering – and fracturing – unevenly.

So there is no question: the next year will be yet another test of character.

But I believe that it is when you are tested that your spirit – your soul - truly shines through.

As I look across our Union, I know that Europe will pass that test.

And what gives me that confidence is the inspiration we can draw from Europe's young people.

Because our youth put meaning into empathy and solidarity.
They believe we have a responsibility towards the planet.
And while they are anxious about the future, they are determined to make it better.

Our Union will be stronger if it is more like our next generation: reflective, determined and caring. Grounded in values and bold in action.

This spirit will be more important than ever over the next twelve months. This is the message in the Letter of Intent I sent this morning to President Sassoli and Prime Minister Janša to outline our priorities for the year ahead.



A EUROPE UNITED THROUGH ADVERSITY AND RECOVERY

Honourable Members,

A year is a long time in a pandemic.

When I stood in front of you 12 months ago, I did not know when – or even if – we would have a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19.

But today, and against all critics, Europe is among the world leaders.

More than 70 per cent of adults in the EU are fully vaccinated. We were the only ones to share half of our vaccine production with the rest of the world. We delivered more than 700 million doses to the European people, and we delivered more than another 700 million doses to the rest of the world, to more than 130 countries.

We are the only region in the world to achieve that.

A pandemic is a marathon, not a sprint.

We followed the science.
We delivered to Europe. We delivered to the world.
We did it the right way, because we did it the European way. And it worked!

But while we have every reason to be confident, we have no reason to be complacent.

Our first – and most urgent – priority is to speed up global vaccination.

With less than 1% of global doses administered in low-income countries, the scale of injustice and the level of urgency are obvious. This is one of the great geopolitical issues of our time.

Team Europe is investing one billion Euro to ramp up mRNA production capacity in Africa. We have already committed to share 250 million doses.

I can announce today that the Commission will add a new donation of another 200 million doses by the middle of next year.

This is an investment in solidarity – but also in global health.

The second priority is to continue our efforts here in Europe.

We see worrisome divergences in vaccination rates in our Union.

So we need to keep up the momentum.

And Europe is ready. We have 1.8 billion additional doses secured. This is enough for us and our neighbourhood when booster shots are needed. Let's do everything possible to ensure that this does not turn into a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

The final priority is to strengthen our pandemic preparedness.

Last year, I said it was time to build a European Health Union. Today we are delivering. With our proposal we get the HERA authority up and running.

This will be a huge asset to deal with future health threats earlier and better.

We have the innovation and scientific capacity, the private sector knowledge, we have competent national authorities. And now we need to bring all of that together, including massive funding.

So I am proposing a new health preparedness and resilience mission for the whole of the EU. And it should be backed up by Team Europe investment of EUR 50 billion by 2027.

To make sure that no virus will ever turn a local epidemic into a global pandemic. There is no better return on investment than that.



Honourable Members,

The work on the European Health Union is a big step forward. And I want to thank this House for your support.

We have shown that when we act together, we are able to act fast.

Take the EU digital certificate:

Today more than 400 million certificates have been generated across Europe. 42 countries in 4 continents are plugged in.

We proposed it in March.

You pushed it!
Three months later it was up and running.


Thanks to this joint effort, while the rest of the world talked about it, Europe just did it.

We did a lot of things right. We moved fast to create SURE. This supported over 31 million workers and 2.5 million companies across Europe.

We learned the lessons from the past when we were too divided and too delayed.

And the difference is stark: last time it took 8 years for the Eurozone GDP to get back to pre-crisis levels.

This time we expect 19 countries to be at pre-pandemic levels this year with the rest following next. Growth in the euro area outpaced both the US and China in the last quarter.

But this is only the beginning. And the lessons from the financial crisis should serve as a cautionary tale. At that time, Europe declared victory too soon and we paid the price for that. And we will not repeat the same mistake.

The good news is that with NextGenerationEU we will now invest in both short-term recovery and long-term prosperity.

We will address structural issues in our economy: from labour market reforms in Spain, to pension reforms in Slovenia or tax reform in Austria.

In an unprecedented manner, we will invest in 5G and fibre. But equally important is the investment in digital skills. This task needs leaders' attention and a structured dialogue at top-level.

Our response provides a clear direction to markets and investors alike.

But, as we look ahead, we also need to reflect on how the crisis has affected the shape of our economy – from increased debt, to uneven impact on different sectors, or new ways of working.

To do that, the Commission will relaunch the discussion on the Economic Governance Review in the coming weeks. The aim is to build a consensus on the way forward well in time for 2023.



Honourable Members,

We will soon celebrate 30 years of the Single Market. For 30 years it has been the great enabler of progress and prosperity in Europe.

At the outset of the pandemic, we defended it against the pressures of erosion and fragmentation. For our recovery, the Single Market is the driver of good jobs and competitiveness.

That is particularly important in the digital single market.

We have made ambitious proposals in the last year.

To contain the gatekeeper power of major platforms;

To underpin the democratic responsibility of those platforms;

To foster innovation;

To channel the power of artificial intelligence.

Digital is the make-or-break issue. And Member States share that view. Digital spending in NextGenerationEU will even overshoot the 20% target.

That reflects the importance of investing in our European tech sovereignty. We have to double down to shape our digital transformation according to our own rules and values.

Allow me to focus on semi-conductors, those tiny chips that make everything work: from smartphones and electric scooters to trains or entire smart factories.

There is no digital without chips. And while we speak, whole production lines are already working at reduced speed - despite growing demand - because of a shortage of semi-conductors.

But while global demand has exploded, Europe's share across the entire value chain, from design to manufacturing capacity has shrunk. We depend on state-of-the-art chips manufactured in Asia.

So this is not just a matter of our competitiveness. This is also a matter of tech sovereignty. So let's put all of our focus on it.

We will present a new European Chips Act. We need to link together our world-class research, design and testing capacities. We need to coordinate EU and national investment along the value chain.

The aim is to jointly create a state-of-the-art European chip ecosystem, including production. That ensures our security of supply and will develop new markets for ground-breaking European tech.

Yes, this is a daunting task. And I know that some claim it cannot be done.

But they said the same thing about Galileo 20 years ago.

And look what happened. We got our act together. Today European satellites provide the navigation system for more than 2 billion smartphones worldwide. We are world leaders. So let's be bold again, this time with semi-conductors.



Mesdames et Messieurs les députés,

La pandémie a laissé de profondes cicatrices –impactant énormément notre économie sociale de marché.

Soir après soir, nous étions tous là - à nos fenêtres, devant nos portes – pour applaudir les travailleurs de première ligne.

Nous avons tous senti combien nous dépendions de ces travailleurs. De celles et ceux qui se dévouent pour un salaire inférieur, moins de protection et moins de sécurité.

Les applaudissements se sont peut-être estompés, mais la force de nos émotions doit perdurer.

C'est pourquoi la mise en œuvre du socle européen des droits sociaux est si importante.

Il s'agit d'emplois décents, de conditions de travail justes, de soins de santé meilleurs, et d'un bon équilibre de vie.

Si la pandémie nous a appris une chose, c'est bien la valeur du temps. Et qu'il n'y a point de temps aussi précieux, que le temps consacré à nos proches.

C'est ainsi que nous proposerons une nouvelle stratégie européenne de soins.

Afin que chaque homme et chaque femme puissent bénéficier des meilleurs soins possibles et trouver le meilleur équilibre de vie. Mais l'équité sociale n'est pas seulement une question de temps, mais aussi une question d'équité fiscale.

Dans notre économie sociale de marché, il est bon que les entreprises réalisent des profits. Mais si elles réalisent des profits, c'est bien grâce à la qualité de nos infrastructures, de notre sécurité sociale et de nos systèmes éducatifs.

Alors, c'est la moindre des choses qu'elles payent leur juste contribution. C'est pourquoi nous continuerons à lutter contre l'évasion et la fraude fiscales.

Nous proposerons un projet de loi ciblant les profits dissimulés derrière des sociétés écrans. Et nous mettrons tout en œuvre pour sceller l'accord mondial historique sur le taux minimal d'impôt sur les sociétés.

Payer un juste montant d'impôts n'est pas seulement une question de finances publiques, mais surtout une simple question d'équité.



Mesdames et Messieurs les députés,

Nous avons tous profité des fondements de notre économie européenne sociale de marché. Et nous devons faire en sorte que la prochaine génération puisse construire son avenir.

Nous sommes en présence d'une jeune génération, hautement éduquée, extrêmement talentueuse et fortement motivée. D'une génération qui a tellement sacrifié pour préserver la sécurité des autres.

La jeunesse c'est – normalement – le moment de la découverte. On fait de nouvelles expériences. On trouve les amis de vie. On découvre son propre chemin. Mais qu'est-ce qu'on a demandé aux jeunes d'aujourd'hui? De garder les distances sociales, de rester confiné et de faire l'école à la maison. Pendant plus d'un an.

C'est ainsi que tout ce que nous faisons – du Pacte Vert à NextGenerationEU – vise à protéger leur avenir.

C'est aussi pourquoi NextGenerationEU doit être financé par de nouvelles ressources propres sur lesquelles nous travaillons.

Mais nous devons également veiller à ne pas créer de nouvelles failles. Parce que l'Europe a besoin de toute sa jeunesse.

Nous devons encourager ceux qui tombent entre les mailles du filet. Ceux qui n'ont pas d'emploi. Ceux qui ne suivent ni enseignement ni formation.

Pour eux, nous allons offrir un nouveau programme – ALMA.

ALMA offrira à ces jeunes la possibilité d'une expérience professionnelle temporaire dans un autre État membre.

Parce qu'ils méritent, eux aussi, de vivre une expérience comme Erasmus. Pour acquérir des compétences, pour créer des liens et se forger leur propre identité européenne.

Mais, si nous voulons façonner notre Union à leur image, les jeunes doivent pouvoir façonner l'avenir de l'Europe. Notre Union doit avoir une âme et une vision qui leur parlent.

Comme Jacques Delors le demandait: Comment fera-t-on l'Europe si les jeunes ne voient pas en elle un projet collectif et une représentation de leur propre avenir?

C'est pourquoi nous proposerons de faire de 2022 l'année de la jeunesse européenne. Une année consacrée à valoriser les jeunes qui ont tant consacré aux autres. Et les jeunes doivent mener les débats de la Conférence sur l'avenir de l'Europe.

C'est leur avenir et ça doit être leur Conférence.

Et comme nous l'avons dit au début du mandat, la Commission sera disposée à donner suite aux points qui seront décidés par la Conférence.



A EUROPE UNITED IN RESPONSIBILITY

Honourable Members,

This is a generation with a conscience. They are pushing us to go further and faster to tackle the climate crisis.

And events of the summer only served to explain why. We saw floods in Belgium and Germany. And wildfires burning from the Greek islands to the hills in France.

And if we don't believe our own eyes, we only have to follow the science.

The UN recently published the IPCC report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is the authority on the science of climate change.

The report leaves no doubt. Climate change is man-made. But since it is man-made, we can do something about it.

As I heard it said recently: It's warming. It's us. We're sure. It's bad. But we can fix it.

And change is already happening.

More electric vehicles than diesel cars were registered in Germany in the first half of this year. Poland is now the EU's largest exporter of car batteries and electric buses. Or take the New European Bauhaus that led to an explosion of creativity of architects, designers, engineers across our Union.

So clearly something is on the move.

And this is what the European Green Deal is all about.

In my speech last year, I announced our target of at least 55% emission reduction by 2030.
Since then we have together turned our climate goals into legal obligations.
And we are the first major economy to present comprehensive legislation in order to get it done.

You have seen the complexity of the detail. But the goal is simple. We will put a price on pollution. We will clean the energy we use. We will have smarter cars and cleaner airplanes.

And we will make sure that higher climate ambition comes with more social ambition. This must be a fair green transition. This is why we proposed a new Social Climate Fund to tackle the energy poverty that already 34 million Europeans suffer from.

I count on both Parliament and Member States to keep the package and to keep the ambition together.

When it comes to climate change and the nature crisis, Europe can do a lot. And it will support others. I am proud to announce today that the EU will double its external funding for biodiversity, in particular for the most vulnerable countries.

But Europe cannot do it alone.

The COP26 in Glasgow will be a moment of truth for the global community.

Major economies – from the US to Japan – have set ambitions for climate neutrality in 2050 or shortly after. These need now to be backed up by concrete plans in time for Glasgow. Because current commitments for 2030 will not keep global warming to 1.5°C within reach.

Every country has a responsibility!

The goals that President Xi has set for China are encouraging. But we call for that same leadership on setting out how China will get there. The world would be relieved if they showed they could peak emissions by mid-decade - and move away from coal at home and abroad.

But while every country has a responsibility, major economies do have a special duty to the least developed and most vulnerable countries. Climate finance is essential for them - both for mitigation and adaptation.

In Mexico and in Paris, the major economies committed to provide 100 billion dollars a year until 2025 to the least developed and most vulnerable countries.

We deliver on our commitment. Team Europe contributes 25 billion dollars per year. But others still leave a gaping hole towards reaching the global target.

Closing that gap will increase the chance of success at Glasgow.

My message today is that Europe is ready to do more. We will now propose an additional 4 billion euro for climate finance until 2027. But we expect the United States and our partners to step up too.

Closing the climate finance gap together – the US and the EU – would be a strong signal for global climate leadership. It is time to deliver.