- Speech by President von der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary on the conclusions of the European Council meeting of 19 December 2024
It is a pleasure to join this plenary debate with president Costa for the first time. And I would like to start by thanking you, mister president of the European Council, dear António, for the excellent cooperation between us in the first weeks of our common mandate. We are only three weeks into 2025, but the glimpse is already there of the change that is coming to global politics. We have entered a new era of harsh geostrategic competition. We are dealing with continent-sized powers. And they engage with each other based mostly on interests. This new dynamic will dominate more and more the relations between global actors. The rules of engagement are changing. Some in Europe may not like this new reality, but we must deal with it. Our values do not change. But to defend them, some things must change.
By President von der Leyen
First of all, we have work to do here at home. If we want to protect our interests and uphold our values, we must also be economically strong. Europe has, as you said António, all the instruments to successfully play its role in the concert of powers. We have a private sector with a long tradition of innovation. We have a top-class workforce – highly educated.
We have a unique social infrastructure to protect people from the great risks of life. And we have a huge Single Market of 450 million people. That is our safe harbour in rough waters, and our strongest leverage in tough negotiations. But our Union and our Single Market do need attention and care. For us, Europeans, the global race begins at home. And this is exactly what we have been discussing in the European Council. And all Member States agree on this. It is the core of the Budapest Declaration on competitiveness that we agreed on during the Hungarian presidency.
And now under the Polish Presidency, this consensus must be implemented. This is why next week, we will present our new Competitiveness Compass, which turns the excellent Draghi report into action. It will be the North Star of this new Commission and drive our work for the next five years. We are setting three goals: First, closing the innovation gap with our competitors. Second, a joint roadmap for decarbonisation and competitiveness. And third, strengthening our economic resilience and security. Let me give you a few insights on each.
On innovation, Draghi’s analysis is very clear. There is a vicious cycle of low investment and low innovation. And this has led, for instance, to a slower uptake of digital technologies here in Europe. So how do we break this cycle? Public investment must definitely play a role. For this to be effective, the coordination between the European level and the Member States needs to improve. In particular in a few strategic areas where we really have to focus on, like AI, quantum and biotechnologies just to name a few – but we have to focus on that.
We have to invest there, Member States have to chip in, but we all know that public funding can never be sufficient. To boost innovation at the right speed and scale, private capital also has to come in. The good news is that European companies are already ramping up their investments in innovation. Last year, Europe’s industry increased its R&D investment by almost 10%. For the first time in ten years, that is more than in both the US and China. But we have to catch up a lot. Thanks to these efforts, we are back in second position globally in terms of total private R&D investment. But again, we must coordinate, we must concentrate, and we must focus on the crucial areas.
For that to happen and to be successful, we need a conducive capital market for our companies and specifically for our start-ups. And to support this, we will be launching a European Savings and Investment Union. We will create new European saving and investment products, new incentives for risk capital, and a new push to ensure the seamless flow of investment across our Union. We must mobilise more capital, to let made-in-Europe and risk-taking innovation thrive here.
Second, I would like to focus on the issue of energy prices. Energy prices in Europe are still structurally higher than in the United States or China and vary significantly within the European Union. So we must bring them down, while we complete the phase-out from Russian fossil fuels. Both objectives are important, and they should go hand in hand. How can we achieve this? Not only must we continue to diversify our energy supplies, which we have done over the last two years. We will also have to invest in next-generation clean energy technologies, because this is energy made in Europe, so it gives us independence.
Take the topics of fusion for example, or enhanced geothermal, or solid-state batteries just to name a few. We must also mobilise here more private capital to modernise our grids and storage infrastructure. So again, the topic of a deep and liquid capital market. We must remove any remaining barriers to our Energy Union. And we must better connect our clean and low-carbon energy systems. All of this, and much more of course than I mentioned today, will be part of a new affordable energy plan that we will present in February.
My third and final point is how to bolster our economic resilience and security. Global powers are now vying for access to raw materials and vital supply chains. In the last years, we have concluded more than 35 new agreements with partners across the world, precisely to ensure our access to raw materials and clean hydrogen for example, and to diversify some of our clean-tech supply chains. This work will be even more crucial in the years ahead.
As you know, since the start of this mandate, in less than two months, we have already concluded three partnership agreements with Mercosur, Mexico and Switzerland. And last Monday, we relaunched our negotiations with Malaysia. These partnerships address some of our key economic interests. They open new and dynamic markets for us. They protect our distinctive products, with the geographical indications, and key sectors like agriculture. And they guarantee our access to critical minerals and clean energy. So widening our network of partnerships was a crucial recommendation of the Draghi report. And we work with parliament and council to move these deals forward.
This new engagement with countries across the world is not only an economic necessity, but it has to be a message to the world. It is Europe’s response to rising global competition. We want more cooperation with all who are open for it. And this of course includes our closest partners. I think, of course, of the United States of America. No other economies in the world are as integrated as Europe and the United States. Millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic depend on our trade and investment.
The trade volume between us is EUR 1.5 trillion. But beyond these numbers there is so much more. Friendships, family ties, common history and culture. This is something we will always keep in mind as we engage with the new American administration. Our first priority will be to engage early, discuss common interests, and be ready to negotiate. And when the time to negotiate comes, we will be pragmatic in seeking common ground. But I also want you to know that we will always stand by our European principles.
Thank you, and long live Europe.
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