{"id":465184,"date":"2026-09-16T16:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/16\/stato-dellunione-2026-critiche-trasversali-a-priorita-e-operato-di-von-der-leyen\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T18:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:04:10","slug":"state-of-the-union-2026-widespread-criticism-of-von-der-leyens-priorities-and-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/16\/state-of-the-union-2026-widespread-criticism-of-von-der-leyens-priorities-and-record\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the Union 2026: widespread criticism of von der Leyen\u2019s priorities and record"},"content":{"rendered":"

From our correspondent in Strasbourg<\/em> \u2013 Widespread discontent. This is the reaction following the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, delivering her State of the Union address<\/a> this morning (16 September) \u2013 the so-called SOTEU<\/a>. There has been widespread discontent regarding both the priorities and the actions of the head of the European Commission over the past year, and political affiliation is largely irrelevant: criticism has come from both the right and the left.<\/p>\n

In the debate<\/a> following the SOTEU, the president of the European People\u2019s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber<\/strong>, is perhaps the only one to consider himself satisfied. It may be that he shares the same political family as von der Leyen, as well as German nationality, but the fact remains that among the issues for which he thanked the Commission President were artificial intelligence \u2013 a technology to which \u201cwe must respond\u201d \u2013 and \u201cthe EU Children\u2019s Act\u201d \u2013 designed to protect children from online risks \u2013 which is due to be presented tomorrow. \u201cElon Musk won\u2019t like it, but that is probably precisely why we should do it,<\/strong>\u201d Weber emphasised. The president then announced that he would \u201cfight for a sensible reform of the ETS and to stop the ban on combustion engines,\u201d because he believes that \u201cwe need innovation, not bans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the harshest criticism came from Patriots for Europe (PfE). The MEP elected with the Lega, Paolo Borchia<\/strong>, described the speech as a \u201ccomplete detachment from reality,\u201d as well as \u201ca long series of broken promises,\u201d particularly in the industrial sector. Like Weber, Borchia also fears \u201cover-regulation\u201d and described the current situation as that of the \u201cTitanic sinking while the passengers continue to dance \u2013 or, in this case, to applaud.<\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The accusation of unfulfilled promises is also widespread amongst the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). The group\u2019s co-chair, Patrick Jaky<\/strong>, pointed out that \u201ca reduction in bureaucracy\u201d had been promised, whereas \u201cthe number of civil servants has increased and new recruitment is now being announced.\u201d \u201cA new industrial strategy and lower energy prices\u201d had also been promised, but the result is that \u201cindustry is collapsing and energy prices have risen by 100 per cent during her term in office,\u201d Jaky emphasised that, rather than climate change, the problem to be tackled is youth unemployment<\/strong>. And then there is migration. \u201cEurope has never been as weak as it is now,\u201d he said, adding that if \u201cvon der Leyen intends to do something for young people, she must stop censoring the internet and provide people with jobs and security, especially women.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group also struck a similar tone. \u201cThe state of the Union can be described as a situation characterised by the loss of borders and a loss of competitiveness, including on the economic front,\u201d said the group\u2019s co-chair, Ren\u00e9 Aust<\/strong>. The Frenchman focused primarily on the section dealing with the migration crisis in Ceuta, describing the situation as \u201ctruly dramatic\u201d and commenting that \u201cnothing is being done to resolve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On the issue of migration, the president of Renew Europe (RE), Valeri\u00e8 Hayer<\/strong>, has criticised the fact that Europeans have \u201clost faith in solidarity, partly due to Ms Meloni\u2019s hypocrisy.\u201d According to the chair of the liberal group, the top priority now must be a European law on climate resilience and risk management, as well as investing in \u201cour capacity to innovate in disruptive technologies: green technologies, AI, data centres, biotechnology and quantum computing,\u201d as \u201cour sovereignty is at stake.\u201d This also includes defending \u201cour innovative businesses from unfair competition\u201d and transforming \u201cEuropean public procurement into a genuine strategic weapon, as China and the United States do,\u201d<\/strong> he added. Turning his attention to Canada and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was present at the plenary session, Hayer called for \u201can economic security pact against commercial coercion.\u201d Thus, \u201cif Trump imposes tariffs, we respond collectively with tariffs; the same applies to China<\/a> and anyone else,\u201d he clarified. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Greens MEP, Benedetta Scuderi<\/strong> \u2013 elected with the Green and Left Alliance \u2013 the speech \u201cwas very wide-ranging and very generous,\u201d but \u201cthe facts are missing, because after almost two and a half years in office, the President is doing the exact opposite of what she said today.\u201d Although the German MEP \u201cspoke of the victims of the extreme heat (35,000 deaths this summer)\u201d, it is \u201cher parliamentary group and her party that continue to oppose every aspect of the transition and strike deals with the far right,\u201d the MEP denounced. Her views were echoed by the co-chair of the Greens, Thierry Reitke<\/strong>, who announced that the group aims to push for an inquiry into the European Commission\u2019s failure to deliver on the Green Deal, particularly in the wake of the wildfires that raged across Europe this summer.<\/span> <\/p>\n

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The chair of the S&D Group, Iratxe Garc\u00eda P\u00e9rez<\/strong>, called for the promotion of \u201ccompetitiveness based on clean, secure, and affordable energy\u201d and called for those who are \u201cprofiting from this specific energy crisis\u201d to be taxed, because \u201cthe European project will not survive if our citizens cannot afford to live with dignity.\u201d To this must be added the strengthening of \u201cEuropean housing legislation\u201d and the adoption of \u201ca law on quality work, with fair rules for the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace and for collective bargaining.\u201d The Socialist politician recalled that a year ago the Commission had \u201ccalled for the suspension of the trade component of the Association Agreement with Israel and for sanctions to be imposed\u201d and, given that a year on there has been no action taken in this regard, \u201can arms embargo is now needed immediately.\u201d The EU must also continue to defend Ukraine, including through \u201cthe confiscation of frozen Russian assets,\u201d an issue which, according to the Spanish politician, needs to be \u201cput back on the table.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Today, Ursula von der Leyen seemed to be on the Moon rather than in the European Parliament,”<\/strong> claimed the MEP from the Five Star Movement (The Left), Pasquale Tridico<\/strong>. \u201cShe described a functioning economy, whereas in reality we are witnessing deindustrialisation across all European countries, with 500 jobs lost every day in industry, rising poverty, growing inequality and a lack of access to healthcare in many countries,\u201d he said. The most serious aspect, according to Tridico, is that \u201cresources are being squandered on rearmament rather than on the basic needs of Italians and Europeans, such as housing, the fight against poverty, and the right to healthcare.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the climate to industrial and foreign policy, the European Commission President\u2019s speech has convinced few MEPs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":465210,"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":[28225,15191,28455,26643,6059,32142,32138,18399,187,5293,28420,21424,16333,25400,27603,28457,32310,28347,28353,5612,25284,26783,1559,28379,21657],"class_list":["post-465184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-conservatives-and-reformists-en","tag-discorso-sullo-stato-dellunione","tag-europe-of-nations-sovereign-en","tag-party-popular-european-en","tag-european-socialists","tag-gaetano-pedulla-en","tag-gaetano-pedulla","tag-i-verdi","tag-lega","tag-manfred-weber","tag-paolo-borchia-en","tag-paolo-borchia","tag-parlamento-europeo","tag-pasquale-tridico","tag-paschal-tridico-en","tag-patrioti","tag-patrioti-en","tag-patrioti-per-leuropa-en","tag-patriots-for-europepatriots-for-europe","tag-plenary-session","tag-renew","tag-renew-en","tag-strasbourg","tag-la-sinistra-en","tag-the-left"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465184","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=465184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465185,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465184\/revisions\/465185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}