EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will propose a radical change to Europe’s security architecture and the NATO Western alliance when she delivers the State of the Union (SOTEU) speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday morning.
The SOTEU address is an annual speech by the President of the European Commission to the European Parliament, setting the priorities for the Union for the year ahead.
Leaders from the EU, plus Ukraine, Britain, Norway, Canada and others, should convene in a new format to coordinate responses to mounting security threats, she will say according to a draft of her annual State of the EU speech seen in advance by Euractiv.
“This is even more urgent now, given the nature and scale of the risks at play. This is why we will set out our ideas to make a European Security Council a reality,” the draft speech reads.
The EU should also create a new “security protocol” – modelled on NATO’s Article 4 – which an EU member state could trigger in order to convene all others.
In the presence of Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, von der Leyen will pitch Canada as a key partner for Europe, proposing an “Alliance for the future” to deepen cooperation between the two sides.
The new relationship is being touted as everything but full membership of the EU, which the Commission views as legally impossible due to the North American country’s geography.
“We want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible,” she will say, according to the draft.
She will also focus on stepping up further links with “like-minded” countries like Canada and Britain regarding AI security and safety.
Read the world article at Euroactiv: Von der Leyen to call for ‘European Security Council’ in SOTEU text