Von der Leyen delivers first State of the European Union

Today, the Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen addressed her first “State of the European Union” (SOTEU) speech before the European Parliament. The annual discourse, which started early in the morning, focused inevitably on the COVID-19 crisis and its impact in Europe. On top of a rather unpredictable health crisis and an imminent Brexit, Europe is now dealing with violence on its neighbourhood and recurring migrant crisis insists on showing Europe’s fragilities.

“Next week, we will put forward the New Pact on Migration. We'll take a human and humane approach. Saving lives at sea is not optional and those countries who fulfill their legal and moral duties or are more exposed than others, must be able to rely on the solidarity of our whole EU,” said von der Leyen.

Before the impossibility of ignoring the pandemic that has affected worldwide economies, societies and ways of living, von der Leyen’s introductory notes focused on the challenges that COVID-19 have brought to Europe and how to get out of this health crisis with greater resilience. “We need to built a stronger European health Union,” delivered the president during the speech on Wednesday. Von der Leyen announced the upcoming empowerment of the European Medicines Agency and the ECDC, as well as a discussion regarding health competences. A Global Health summit was announced for the next year, in Italy.

Overall, a more resilient Europe means stronger economies and welfare systems ready to respond to people’s needs. Von der Leyen tried to reassure roughly 440 million citizens that instruments such as the Multiannual Financial Framework will boost the continent’s shape and help member states to get back on the recovery track.

Despite the significance of each of the Commission’s endeavours, the European Green Deal has attracted particular attention as it is poised to revamp the entire economy and finance in Europe. In fact, the EU is striving to be the first climate-neutral continent in the world and it hopes to inspire other nations to follow the lead.

The digital upgrade in Europe is another top priority. In late July, the EU’s Innovation and Research Commissioner Mariya Gabriel informed that developing digital competencies throughout the EU as well as encouraging gender equality in the bloc’s digital economy are two key areas that the Commission will seek to promote as part of the upcoming revamped Digital Education Action Plan.

Essentially, overall recovery will need strong policy direction, as well as investment. This prediction was outlined in greater detail in the Communication on Europe’s Recovery Plan. It was further reflected with new proposals mentioned in the Commission’s Letter of Intent to the European Parliament and Council on the occasion of the SOTEU. Finally, these will feature as part of a well-developed Commission Work Programme for 2021, to be adopted in October 2020. 

The SOTEU was first introduced ten years ago, after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force. Since then, it became a famous yearly ceremony, connecting the work developed by the EU and its citizens. 

EU's Anti-Fraud Office delivers 2019 report

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) released yesterday ”The OLAF report 2019”, summarizing the main achievements on their efforts to tackle fraud, corruption and mismanagement within the Union. According to the 60-page document, in 2019 alone, OLAF has recommended the recovery of €485 million to the EU budget. 

Some of the most striking trends revealed by OLAF investigations during the course of 2019 include collusion and manipulation of procurement, cross-border schemes that make detection more difficult, frequent targeting of projects in third countries, continued targeting of research funding and finally, smuggling and counterfeiting involving complex cross-border networks.

“We stand ready to deploy our arsenal of tools to ensure that not a cent of the EU budget is lost to fraud, that EU businesses do not suffer unfair competition from cheap substandard imports that do not pay taxes and that EU citizens are safe from dangerous products, including those that they increasingly buy online,” stated OLAF’s Director-General Ville Itälä.

As stated in their annual report, in 2019, OLAF concluded 181 investigations issuing a total of 254 recommendations to the relevant national and EU authorities. The EU’s Anti-Fraud bureau opened 223 new investigations, following 1174 preliminary analyses carried out by OLAF experts. In addition to investigation and coordination efforts, OLAF planned or provided support to 13 joint customs operations which led to significant progress in its bids to fight the illegal trade in tobacco products by helping national authorities seize more than 251.4 million cigarettes.

EU's watchdogs call for more transparency

Nevertheless, major issues remain to be addressed. Back in June, the EU watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Global Health Advocates (GHA), delivered two reports condemning the way the EU is funding scientific research. The first report is called “More private than public: the ways Big Pharma dominates the Innovative Medicines Initiative”, and the second, “Research & Destroy: the factories of the industrial bioeconomy threaten the climate and biodiversity”.

According to these reports developed by Martin Pigeon (CEO) and Marine Ejuryan (GHA), industrial lobbies have managed to control the use of at least 3.6 billion of euro in European public research funds in the guise of innovation.

According to the authors, the reports reveal that “these lobby groups have prevented partnerships from meaningfully investing into research projects that address societal challenges such as epidemic preparedness or to invest in viable climate solutions; the EU research funds were mostly used to fund their own commercially profitable research projects instead.”

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