The real SOTEU

Earlier this week, the President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker stood before the European Parliament and delivered the annual State of the Union speech. It was his last State of the Union speech, as his term presiding over the European Commission comes to an end. As expected, there were not a lot of new initiatives and Juncker was unusually uncontroversial.

On some issues, I think his analysis and address was spot on. For instance, one can hardly argue that the Union has not made huge strides forward on the economic front and where the President rightly highlighted that economies were growing, as are employment rates.

Juncker is also right, in my view, about the approach being taken vis-à-vis Africa and where he announced a package that would build on the Union’s previous efforts recognising the potential of this continent. This is key to building lasting partnerships with an important neighbouring region to ensure its development and help it realise its potential. It is also part of the longer-term solution to end upward migratory flows towards central Europe.

There were, however, some points to which Juncker referred or where his speech lacked detail, which are a cause for concern. Most notably, two particular issues come to mind in this regard: migration and using the qualified voting majority for foreign policy and taxation matters.

On the first, Juncker spoke of strengthening the European Border and Coastguard and reviewing the procedures for the more efficient return of migrants irregularly residing in Europe. Of course, these are positive initiatives, but I felt that the President should have spoken further about how the EU can make solidarity work in practice on this issue. I under- stand that such issues are by and large ones where we are facing a political crisis because of the lack of willingness at the political level to share the burdens, but I expected Juncker to be clearer, more direct and unequivocal on this.

Then there is the second controversial point on the voting method for issues related to foreign policy and taxation matters. In these areas, the EU has made considerable progress and nowadays Juncker’s dream of having a security union has more or less been realised. However, the President still has to grasp that the Union consists of member states, each with their sovereignty and specificities. This is why the Treaty finds a balance and ensures that, without unanimity amongst the member states, there cannot be action at an EU level. In this regard, I feel that the President reiterating the reference to the use of a loophole in the Treaty to bypass the unanimity clause is worrying, divisive and will inevitably lead to friction between member states.

Finally, I also feel that the speech was a little bit dry of ambition in certain areas such as job creation and the exploitation of new emerging niches that yield economic growth. One would expect such a speech to outline the vision of the Union to prepare itself for the future, including by explaining how it can attract and retain talent. In this sense, I felt that perhaps the speech could have focused a lot more on digitisation, new innovative and emerging industries, and making the EU future-proof.

The next few months in the run-up to the European elec- tions will be very important to our Union. We are yet to deliver on a number of key areas and several pending matters, including among others the agreement on the new Multiannual Financial Framework. I feel that we have come a long way and that as a Union we are functioning. However, we need to do more in order to secure the trust of our citizens: if we want them to believe in our Union, we need to work on becoming more efficient and result-oriented.

The President still has to grasp that the Union consists of member states, each with their sovereignty and specificities We need to do more in order to secure the trust of our citizens: if we want them to believe in our Union, we need to work on becoming more efficient and resultoriented