The response to European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union speech on Wednesday has been considerably combined, with leaders calling for extra ambition and a concentrate on the inexperienced transition.

European Individuals’s Celebration President Manfred Weber helps the Fee’s inexperienced transition efforts, whereas outgoing Greens co-president Ska Keller thinks the chief must be extra bold. Socialist chief Iratxe Garcia Perez desires to speed up the shift to renewables underlying that “it isn’t the second to come back again to the previous”.

These feedback are amongst a sequence of interviews by Parliament leaders with EURACTIV on the topical factors of Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech on Wednesday.

“The course of the Fee’s proposal is true”, stated Weber, referring to the inexperienced transition amid the battle in Ukraine.

Nonetheless, he thinks “the satan is within the particulars. If Emmanuel Macron shouldn’t be able to construct up a gasoline pipeline to Spain, then he’s harming the thought of build up a European vitality market”.

“We wish to admire the clear assist for von der Leyen in regards to the inexperienced transition and the renewable coverage,” stated S&D President Garcia Perez, who underlined the necessity to transfer in the direction of a greener future.

The issue with the State of the Union speeches lies of their implementation, stated Ska Keller. “There have been lots of issues in there that I can completely subscribe to,” stated Keller.

However the difficulties come as a result of the implementation course of entails not simply EU establishments but in addition the latter in dialogue with member state, she added.

Due Diligence and Migration

The Fee President “didn’t speak that a lot about due diligence and the accountability of multinationals” stated The Left co-President Manon Aubry. “In the case of due diligence, human rights impacts, and environmental accountability, it is vitally restricted”.

She thinks von der Leyen has not been “constant in any respect” on local weather coverage, as a result of the Fee president praised EU commerce agreements which can be environmentally unsustainable.

“The response to the battle in Ukraine was good and nice in welcoming Ukrainian refugees, however taking a look at different not-EU international locations the place the massive a part of the migration flows are coming, we’d like one thing totally different from what the Fee and EU establishments labored on previously 5, six years,” Identification and Democracy President Marco Zanni instructed EURACTIV.

He believes that an settlement on the redistribution of migrants shouldn’t be attainable however sees an answer in creating hotspots outdoors EU borders managed by Frontex or different EU establishments.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]