Ursula von der Leyen: Europe at a 'Tipping Point'

Europe is at a “tipping point,” according to Ursula von der Leyen.

In her State of the Union address on Wednesday, the Commission president warned that the bloc had reached a watershed moment on several levels — from trade with China to climate change and artificial intelligence.

The EU is “the strongest it has ever been,” even though it could equally “feel as precarious as it has ever been,” said von der Leyen.

POLITICO analysis of the speech shows that commonly mentioned themes included Ukraine, threats to defense and security, energy prices and artificial intelligence, as well as this summer’s heat waves and pressure on the bloc’s external borders.

Faced with Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities, a surge of migrants into the Spanish territory of Ceuta that laid bare EU divisions on migration, and with devastating wildfires and droughts that affected much of the Continent, the bloc had lived through a “summer of truth,” according to the Commission chief.

“There can be no repeat of this summer,” she said.

Comparing this year’s speech with past addresses shows how the major threads in the annual State of the Union have evolved.

They moved from the Greek debt crisis and upsurge in refugee arrivals in 2015, under former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, to the Green Deal in 2020, at the start of von der Leyen’s first term, to a focus on Russia, Ukraine, energy, security and defense now.