A bit of green, a bit of grey, a few community accents and here is a speech that is taking shape. On Thursday 18 July, Ursula von der Leyen succeeded in a perilous exercise: getting re-elected as President of the European Commission for five more years, even though she has often been criticised over the last five years. To convince 401 MEPs (at least 360 needed to vote in her favour), she tried a new formula: “sustainable competitiveness”.
Ursula von der Leyen promises in particular a “pact for a clean industry” in order to “to guarantee the competitiveness of our industrial sectors as well as quality jobs“To please the Green Party, she promised to continue implementing the Green Deal – this set of texts supposed to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. At the same time, she announced new legislation aimed at accelerating the decarbonisation of industry.
«She is committed to the Green Deal and refuses any backtracking on the matter in order to reassure the Greens and the Centre-Left. But she frames it in the perspective of competitiveness in order to reassure her own party.“, analyses Thu Nguyen, deputy director of the Jacques Delors Centre in Berlin. Ursula von der Leyen is indeed from the main political family in the chamber: that of the European People’s Party (EPP).
Five years to create the “Defense Union”
The Christian Democrats are traditionally concerned with sustaining economic growth, simplifying the rules that affect businesses as much as possible and strengthening the industrial fabric of the Old Continent. Ursula von der Leyen has repeatedly called for this, promising, among other things, the simplification and acceleration of permit rules for certain so-called “net zero” technologies.
The defense industry is not left out of the president’s priorities, who now wants to build a “Defense Union.” In addition to appointing a commissioner in charge of this subject, the German wants to “create a genuine single market for defence products and services, which will consolidate production capacities and promote joint procurement“To this end, it advocates the strengthening of the programme for the European defence industry.
Within the European office of Greenpeace, Jorgo Riss is already worried: “His agenda is imbued with corporate interests and will lead to increased neocolonial competition for resources, more pollution and exploitation of people and ecosystems.».
Ursula von der Leyen now has five years to turn her many promises into reality and try to prove herself in order to develop a climate-neutral industrial policy. Quite a programme.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
