She calls it a “great economic challenge” for the continent. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen recognized, this Wednesday, September 13, that the return to the objective of inflation of 2% in the euro zone “will take time”, seeing in “the persistence of a high inflation. What should we remember from the EU boss’s State of the Union speech? L’Express details the announcements for you.
inflation
“Christine Lagarde and the European Central Bank are working tirelessly to curb inflation,” she said, on the eve of an expected decision on maintaining or further increasing the monetary institution’s interest rates. . The annual inflation rate in the 20 eurozone countries stood at 5.3% in August, after reaching 10.6% in October 2022.
An investigation into electric car subsidies in China
Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday the opening of an investigation into Chinese public subsidies for electric automobiles to defend European industry in the face of “artificially low prices”.
“Global markets are today flooded with cheap Chinese electric cars, the price of which is kept artificially low by massive public subsidies,” said Ursula von der Leyen, in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “Europe is open to competition. Not to a race to the bottom,” she said.
The course of the “Green Deal”
The President of the European Commission stressed on Wednesday her desire to “stay the course” on the Green Deal while guaranteeing “a fair and just transition”, while EU environmental regulations are the subject of growing resistance.
“When it comes to the European Green Deal, we are staying the course, we remain ambitious, we are not deviating from our growth strategy. And we will always be keen to guarantee a fair and just transition,” he said. -she said during her State of the Union speech to MEPs in Strasbourg.
No more permits for wind power
She also announced on Wednesday in Strasbourg a series of future measures in favor of wind energy, emphasizing the need to accelerate the issuance of permits.
“We are going to present a package of European measures on wind energy – closely coordinated with the industry and the Member States,” she announced to the Parliament in plenary session. “We will further speed up the issuance of permits. We will improve the auction systems across the EU,” she added.
Ukraine has made “great strides” towards its entry into the EU
Ukraine has made “great progress” on the road to joining the European Union, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday in Strasbourg.
Faced with this progress, “it is now time to rise to the height of this determination”, she declared to MEPs, in her traditional State of the Union speech.