In the opening words of her State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rightly pointed out the need for institutions to “[earn] the trust of Europeans to deal with their aspirations and anxieties.” However, what followed did not explain how to achieve that goal. Four years into this Commission’s term, the speech offered almost no policies to address underlying problems, instead asking merely for a bunch of reports on persistent and well-known issues.
President von der Leyen’s State of the Union address touched upon many issues and broadly formulated proposals, often not sufficiently detailed for immediate in-depth analysis. In this editorial we look at the narrative and the proposals to reinforce European...
On Wednesday 13 September, European Commission president Juncker announced what will be the course of Europe until late 2018, in front of the European Parliament. The European Civic Forum paid a special attention to his speech and wanted to contribute to the debates...
