Stronger, Safer… Really? Unpacking von der Leyen’s 2025 State of the Union | ECFR

11 September 2025, 13:00 – 13:45 , Berlin time (CEST, UTC+2) Guests Tiago Antunes, Associate Senior Fellow, ECFR Agathe Demarais, Head of Geoeconomics and Tech Initiative & Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR Janka Oertel, Distinguished Policy Fellow, ECFR Chaired by Vessela Tcherneva, Deputy Director, ECFR Last year, European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen promised to deliver a stronger, safer, and more prosperous Europe. Yet the first year of her second mandate has been anything but smooth as political rifts, global shocks and an increasingly fractured international landscape are testing Europe’s resolve. What has the EU delivered on over the past year and where has it fallen short? How well is the Commission steering Europe through an age of geopolitical rupture? From pledges of unprecedented defence spending and support to Ukraine to trade tensions with Washington and the EU’s precarious balancing act with Beijing— what can we make of von der Leyen’s first State of the Union address since securing a second term as president? Join ECFR’s experts for a lunch time conversation as they decode Ursula von der Leyen’s messages, assess the EU’s progress in defence and security, geoeconomics and China-related issues, and debate the key shifts that will shape Europe’s geopolitical and geoeconomic year ahead. Online event. Registration required.
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