Ursula von der Leyen’s initiative for legislature

Brussels (EFE).- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this Wednesday in the European Parliament that one of her first “big” initiatives in her second term at the head of the institution will be to boost the economic economy. The strategy, called “Competition Compass”, was based on the recommendations of a report prepared by Mario Draghi.

In her speech before the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France), which will vote on whether or not to approve the new College of German Company Commissioners, including Teresa Ribera, von der Leyen assured that she had “carefully “Heard. MEPs made their “repeated requests” for “substantial changes” in the bloc’s economy.

“Our freedom and sovereignty depend more than ever on our economic strength. Our security depends on our ability to compete, innovate and produce and our social model depends on an economy that grows and faces demographic change,” explained the head of the Community Executive.

Along these lines, he announced that the “first major initiative” of the new European Commission would be the “Competitiveness Compass”, an economic strategy which, he said, would be based on the three pillars of the Draghi report: the innovation gap between the United States and China, a Decarbonization and competitiveness planning and greater security and reduced dependency.

With regard to the former, von der Leyen stressed that the share of patent applications in Europe is similar to that of the United States and China “but only about a third of them are commercially exploited”, while the bloc is “similar to the United States. As good as America”. “United” is making ‘start-up’ but then faces increasing problems.

“We have to bridge that gap. We will place research and innovation, science and technology at the heart of our economy. We will invest more and better,” he promised, later highlighting that this fact is “particularly relevant” for the digital technology sector.

German claimed, “To be competitive, Europe must be home to the next wave of cutting-edge technologies.”
Regarding decarbonization and competitiveness of the economy – the second pillar – von der Leyen stressed her idea to present a proposal for a clean industries pact in her first 100 days in office.

At this point, the President of the European Commission named the role that will be that of Teresa Ribera, to whom he has assigned the post of Vice-President for the ecological transition and competitiveness, and defended that in the EU “it must be agile and better with people and companies on the way”, as well as relying on its “traditional strengths” which are “industry and SMEs, innovators and workers”.

automobile dialogue table

Within the industrial strategy, von der Leyen will lead a dialogue table that will bring together the European automobile sector with the aim of “listening to each other and designing solutions” at a time when the industry is “going through a profound and disruptive transition “

“The European automobile industry is a source of pride. Millions of jobs depend on it and together we must guarantee that the future of cars continues to be written in Europe,” he stressed.

Finally, von der Leyen recalled that the EU’s “overdependencies” could “quickly become vulnerabilities”, which is why she defended the need to promote “free and fair” trade to diversify supplies. , for example, of critical raw materials. The most obvious” example in this chapter and whose global demand “has already doubled during the last term.”

The executive head of the Community warned that moving forward across these three pillars “will require a new approach to coordinating policies”, while adding that public financing will be crucial to achieve this.

Along these lines, he defended his initiative to simplify the community budget which “is often too complex” and “funds the same thing in different programs.”

“But the public budget alone cannot go this far. We urgently need more private investment,” recalled von der Leyen, who said that “the private capital gap is the main reason” why Europe is lagging behind China or the United States in R&D spending.

Teresa Ribera to implement “modern competition policy”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today appointed Spanish Teresa Ribera as Vice-President of the new Community Executive and Observer for Climate Policy to deploy “a modern competitiveness policy”.

“Our first Executive Vice President for a clean, fair and competitive transition will be Teresa Ribera Rodriguez. He is very capable of ensuring that we have a modern competition policy that supports our ambitions. She is a true and committed European. And together, we will always work for the European interest,” von der Leyen said.

This is how the German politician mentioned Ribera, who received applause from the Community Chamber, at the presentation of his team at the new European Commission, in which Ribera will work together with the Frenchman Stéphane Séjourn, who will work tirelessly as executive vice-president to unite . Dimensions of industry and the internal market.