EU/von der Leyen | Head of the EU Commission: With passion for capital

Ursula von der Leyen during her speech on the state of the EU on Wednesday a week ago Photo: AFP/Jean-Christophe Verhaegen Once a year, Commission President von der Leyen gives her keynote speech on the state of the EU. As a rule, a lot of passion in the interests of big capital in the EU and with indifference towards working and poor people. Same this year.

While people in Europe are asking themselves existential questions in the face of the affordability crisis and, according to surveys, are increasingly turning away from the EU, the Commission President delivered a navel-gazing dripping with pathos: As a "peace project founded," it is "truth, justice and respect for our values" that "we defend as a Union," von der Leyen told the audience. In fact, she continues to rely on geopolitical confrontation in the interests of capital in Europe, as her further statements made clear.

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While hundreds of thousands of colleagues across the EU fear for their jobs and more and more civilian companies are being converted into arms factories, she was enthusiastic about it. The President of the Commission noted with satisfaction that the rapid increase in military spending had “led to record investments in our capabilities and forces.” But now the EU must “shift up another gear.” Ukraine should play an important role in this. Both sides could contribute their “qualities” to key projects, said von der Leyen: “Here we bring together the Ukrainians’ combat experience and innovative strength with Europe’s technological leadership. And of course our considerable production capacity.” To do this, funds that were left over from the EU SAFE defense credit pot should be tapped. There is talk in the press of 10 to 20 billion euros with which von der Leyen wants to "set up a new program for joint projects with Ukrainian companies." Ukraine is becoming more and more deeply integrated into the European rearmament agenda.

Another area in which von der Leyen sees the EU on the right track is the promotion of independent European technology startups. She raved about the EU-funded startup ICEYE, which was intended to serve as a prime example of the fact that “innovation is at home in Europe.” ICEYE shows an example of where the journey is headed: Originally founded with the idea of ​​operating earth observation satellites for environmental applications, among other things, the company's business increasingly shifted towards armaments. Satellites are now being built for the Bundeswehr in cooperation with Rheinmetall, and shortly after the hasty contract award, they exceeded the original budget of 1.756 billion euros by a third. The company is a prime example of the increasing militarization of the technology industry in Europe and the explosion in costs for defense projects.

In addition to vague announcements about, among other things, the expansion of neoliberal free trade agreements, von der Leyen's announcement that Canada would become the first "associated member of the EU" attracted the most attention. Beyond the question of what such associated membership should consist of, this initiative also fits into the picture. The EU under von der Leyen is looking for partners to reposition itself geopolitically, becoming more independent of the USA, but still firmly anchored in the Western bloc. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney named the fields in which Canada and the EU should cooperate more closely: AI and high technology, space, armaments and critical raw materials.

In short: Von der Leyen's perspective is different than that of many people. Solutions to the obvious problems, from the massively rising cost of living to the wildfires in many EU countries, are not mentioned in her speech. Instead: move forward with armament, exploitation and isolation. In the latter case, the speech became particularly clear: It's not about values, because as von der Leyen said: "We don't make any concessions when it comes to protecting our borders."

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