{"id":464983,"date":"2026-09-15T14:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T12:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/15\/verso-il-discorso-sullo-stato-dellunione-dalla-competitivita-al-clima-le-priorita-dei-gruppi-parlamentari\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:38:10","slug":"ahead-of-the-state-of-the-union-address-from-competitiveness-to-climate-change-the-priorities-of-the-parliamentary-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/15\/ahead-of-the-state-of-the-union-address-from-competitiveness-to-climate-change-the-priorities-of-the-parliamentary-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of the State of the Union address: from competitiveness to climate change\u2014the priorities of the parliamentary groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 European competitiveness, the migration crisis in Ceuta, and wildfires: these are some of the key issues that the political groups in the European Parliament expect Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> to address tomorrow (16 September) in her speech on the State of the Union<\/a> (SOTEU), and which the plenary will address during the coming working days. This was explained today (15 September) by the group leaders during the traditional press conferences they hold at the start of each plenary session. In addition to all these issues, there is the speech to be delivered on Thursday by the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/strong>\u2014which will reinforce the North American partner\u2019s closeness to the Union, partly motivated by the restlessness of its southern neighbour, the United States\u2014and the protection of the European Union from foreign interference and disinformation. <\/p>\n

The September plenary session marks, more than any other event, the return to business for European politics, and the State of the Union address is an unmissable event because it sets the agenda for the coming months and years. The president of the Socialists (S&D), Iratxe Garc\u00eda P\u00e9rez<\/strong>, stressed that her group\u2019s priorities are \u201cEuropean sovereignty and economic accessibility\u2014in other words, how Europe can respond to the problems citizens face today.\u201d The latter includes \u201cfood, housing, affordable energy, quality jobs, climate ambition, and greater sovereignty,\u201d she explained. P\u00e9rez lamented that, over the last two years, the Commission has instead had \u201ca single priority: deregulation,\u201d which the MEP described as \u201can obsession of the European People\u2019s Party and the far right.\u201d This will, therefore, be the issue she raises in the debate following the State of the Union Address, alongside the question of \u201cthe need for an agenda to combat climate change.<\/strong>\u201d It is not just a matter of promoting \u201can adaptation agenda, but also a mitigation agenda,\u201d the Spanish MEP warned. The reason lies in the serious consequences of the wildfires that broke out this summer, \u201cwhich not only affect the countries of southern Europe\u201d and as a result of which \u201cour economy is also suffering,\u201d she added. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Greens agree on this issue. The co-leader of the Greens, Terry Reintke<\/strong>, has announced that tomorrow her group \u201cwill exert pressure, particularly because the Commission has remained far too silent over the summer.<\/strong>\u201d In this context, it should be noted that the Greens had already this summer \u201ccalled for an emergency summit so that leaders could make concrete declarations of their intentions\u201d regarding climate change and adaptation. Discontent has, however, been expressed regarding the debate on the PFAS scandal in Croatia, which the Greens had requested and secured \u201cfor Thursday afternoon.\u201d The group feels this timing does not give the issue \u201cthe prominence it deserves.\u201d Another issue on which Reintke promises to fight is that of the 160 LGBTQIA+ activists arrested in Turkey. On this issue, she stated that she \u201cwill put pressure on the Commission to take action\u201d on behalf of those arrested, for whom the European Parliament\u2019s plenary session yesterday amended its agenda to include an urgent debate on the matter. <\/span><\/p>\n

Opinions differ amongst the right-wing members of the European Parliament. The co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Nicola Procaccini<\/strong>, expects that tomorrow \u201cvon der Leyen will focus her speech on the climate, climate change and the need for decarbonisation.\u201d However, \u201cif we focus exclusively on decarbonisation, we will be making a serious mistake, both for the European economy\u2014given that we do not have the necessary resources for adaptation\u2014and for the climate, as we will fail to make an effective contribution while the rest of the world is moving in a different direction,\u201d explained the MEP. Procaccini then recalled that he had \u201calready raised\u201d with the head of the European Commission \u201cthe issue of critical raw materials,<\/strong>\u201d the shortage of which is not being \u201caddressed in the right way.\u201d Lamenting that the issue is not being treated as a \u201cstrategic priority,\u201d Procaccini stated that \u201cEurope is making exactly the same mistakes as it has over the last ten years\u201d with regard to other dependencies, such as energy. Finally, regarding the debate on the situation of migrants in Ceuta, the other co-chair of the Conservatives and Reformists, Patrick Jaky<\/strong>, made \u201ca personal appeal to the Spanish Prime Minister\u201d to resign<\/strong>, accusing him of facilitating the entry of illegal immigrants onto European soil. <\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of Renew Europe, the group\u2019s chair, Val\u00e9rie Hayer<\/strong>, emphasised that \u201c\u2018Europe must be the ideal place to turn a good idea into a successful business” and that “this means a single market without barriers,” investing “in technologies and skills for the jobs of the future,” as well as “capital markets union, incentives for businesses and competitiveness.\u201d  To this end, her group is calling for the establishment \u201cof a task force on the implementation of the single market to remove\u201d barriers<\/strong>. This initiative should also include \u201cnew alliances with like-minded partners in the fields of trade, defence, and raw materials\u201d, such as Canada. In this context, the speech by the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney<\/strong><\/span>\u2014who was invited to this plenary session by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola<\/strong>, last May\u2014\u201crepresents a historic opportunity to deepen relations between the EU and Canada.\u201d Therefore, \u201cwe call for a significant strengthening of economic, political, and security ties,\u201d as well as \u201cthe completion of the ratification of CETA<\/strong>\u201d\u2014the trade agreement between the European Union and Canada, which is still being applied on a provisional basis. <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the co-chair of La Sinistra, Martin Schirdewan<\/strong>, highlighted what, in his view,  will be \u201cthe major omissions from the SOTEU.\u201d These include \u201csocial policies\u201d such as reducing \u201cenergy prices for households or at the petrol pump\u201d or \u201cmaking rents more affordable.\u201d Instead, the German politician argued that what is needed are \u201ctaxes on windfall profits for large companies in the arms industry, which are currently being pampered with public money,\u201d as well as \u201ca European digital tax on the big tech giants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All eyes and ears will be on the words Ursula von der Leyen will use tomorrow (16 September) in the plenary chamber to set out the EU\u2019s agenda for the coming months and years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":464913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[31262,13160,25927,28225,19524,26339,34935,34940,28219,2449,26643,26351,6059,25755,22818,26755,32394,32400,25284,26783,25759,17029,11610,32034,20676,27952,28379,21657,26535,26540],"class_list":{"0":"post-464983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canada-en","10":"tag-conservatives-and-reformists-en","11":"tag-eurocamera","12":"tag-eurocamera-en","13":"tag-europa-nazioni-sovrane","15":"tag-verdi-europei-en","16":"tag-european-greens","17":"tag-party-popular-european-en","18":"tag-socialists-europeans-en","19":"tag-european-socialists","20":"tag-news-parliament-en","21":"tag-nicola-procaccini","22":"tag-nicola-procaccini-en","23":"tag-plenaria-di-strasburgo","24":"tag-plenaria-di-strasburgo-en","25":"tag-renew","26":"tag-renew-en","27":"tag-roberta-metsolaat","28":"tag-roberta-metsola","29":"tag-soteu","30":"tag-soteu-en","31":"tag-terry-reintke","32":"tag-terry-reintkeat","33":"tag-la-sinistra-en","34":"tag-the-left","35":"tag-valerie-hayer","36":"tag-valerie-hayer-en"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464984,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464983\/revisions\/464984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}