President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen yearly “State of the Union” speech

She outlined the main priorities and flagship initiatives for the year to come, building on the European Union's successes and achievements of the past years.

EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL

• Organise a series of Clean Transition Dialogues with the industry to develop an approach for each industrial ecosystem, including agriculture
• Propose a European Wind Power package to help alleviate challenges of the EU’s wind industry; fast-track permitting even more and improve the auction systems
• Launch an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China
• Launch a strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture in the EU

ECONOMY, SOCIAL AND COMPETITIVNESS

• Organise a newSocial Partner Summit, to focus on challenges – from skills and labour shortages to changes stemming from artificial intelligence
• Appoint an EUenvoy for small and medium enterpriseswho will report to the Commission President
• Put forward legislative proposals toreduce reporting requirementsat the European level by 25 %, to make it easier to do business
• Solicit aReport from Mario Draghi on the future of European competitiveness, to set out how the EU can remain competitive while leading on clean transition

DIGITAL AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• Initiative toopen up our high-performance computers to European AI start-upsto train their models
• Support the creation of a global panelgathering scientists, tech companies and experts, to identify opportunities and risks related to AI
• Work with business sector onminimum global standardsfor safe and ethical use of AI

UKRAINE

• Propose toextend the temporary protectionfor Ukrainians in the EU
• Implement the proposal for aUkraine Facility, worthEUR 50 billion, for investment and reforms in the next 4 years

ENLARGEMENT
• Extend the EU Rule of Law reports to those

accession countries that get up to speed faster

• Launch a series ofpre-enlargement policy reviewsto see how each EU policy may need to be adapted to a larger EU
• Present ideas to the Leaders’ discussionto be held under the Belgian Presidency
  of the Council of the EU

GLOBAL EUROPE, MIGRATION AND SECURITY

• Propose anew strategic approach for Africa, to develop mutually beneficial partnership on common issues for both continents
• Organise aninternational conference on the fight against smuggling of migrants

To see the full speech: https://state-of-the-union.ec.europa.eu/index_en Länk till annan webbplats.