Europe is scared – Ursula von der Leyen speaks the truth

The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her speech at the European Parliament Plenary on the conclusions of the European Council meeting acknowledged the most important problems of Europe in 2025. She spoke frankly - Europe is plunging into crisis, and she does not know how to get out of it. Her speech is full of confessions and wishful thinking.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is Europe's response to rising global competition.”

Ursula von der Leyen vs Robert Habeck
Photo: Reuters

…Ursula von der Leyen wants expensive but "democratic" American gas, Germany is categorically against it. Another conflict in Europe.

Germany’s economy minister Robert Habeck warned Europe against becoming overly reliant on US energy and urged the region to stick together in response to the new Donald Trump administration, Bloomberg writes.

Europe should “meet the Trump administration with an outstretched hand, but not have our hand cut off,” he said Tuesday at the Handelsblatt energy summit in Berlin, responding to the climate and energy directives Trump launched hours after taking office. The European Union should define its own interests, said Habeck, who is the Green Party’s lead candidate for Germany’s upcoming Feb. 23 elections.

Habeck called it “a fatal signal to the world” that one of Trump’s first official acts as president was to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to keep a global temperature rise this century below 2C above pre-industrial times. “That is the beginning of a historic failure,” he said.

Habeck also warned that Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on other nations will drive up inflation in the US and Europe and weaken the economy.

“We shouldn’t believe that what is happening there can be a model for us,” said Habeck, who is also Germany’s vice chancellor. “That would destroy the foundations of what we have created here in Germany and Europe.”

Ursula von der Leyen and Victor Orban in Europarlament.
Photo: Reuters

…The Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban gave a response to this speech and to von der Leyen's position. “Anti-Russian sanctions destroyed European economy,” Orban said.

The Hungarian prime minister said that "a new era" has come with US President Donald Trump taking office. The EU now has to "throw sanctions out the window and build a sanctions-free order of relations with Russia," he added.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that sanctions against Russia have not only failed to achieve their goals but also destroyed the competitiveness of the European economy.

"It’s time to talk about sanctions! Did they bring the war to an end? No. Did they cripple the economy? No. Did Europe manage to replace Russian energy from other affordable sources? No. The sanctions engineered by the Brussels bureaucrats achieved one thing: they destroyed the competitiveness of the European economy. The time for change has come!" Orban said.

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