“A state of hopeless, but not serious,” said the old Viennese with a sophisticated mood. In this situation of the European Union, the president of the Commission Ursula von der Laien was appointed to be placed in Strasbourg in the established speech “On the Situation of the Union” this week before the European Parliament.

Since we are unable to copy the US more essential elements of federalism, what to do, let’s just be as ambitious symbols such as annual announcements to the standards of the speech “State of the Union”, which the US president speaks to Congress from 1790.

The “Language of Power” in the New EU

From the first moment she appeared in the Eurovision seeking a vote of confidence, in 2019, Ursula von der Laien promised a “geopolitical commission”, who “learns the language of power”. To this day it remains faithful to it, it probably cannot do differently in the midst of geopolitical turmoil that overturns many post -war laws. “We are in battle, today’s world is relentless” were her first words in the Strasbourg plenary.

Indeed, Europe is fighting, but this is largely the case because many national governments are opposed to each other. An example is the trade agreement with the US, which clearly responds to the logic of “not optimal”. Europe’s powerful did not have the courage or displacement to push the White House for something better, but now they are confused by the Commission for an agreement that negotiated on their part.

There was an earlier one, but in recent years the Blame Game has been intensified in the EU: when a positive result is a negotiation of national governments, when the result is less satisfactory it is charged “in Brussels” in general.

In retreat the ‘middle class’

But there is another problem that makes it difficult for the “battle of Europe”. For decades, many, but many Europeans, have been fighting their own “battle” to get the month, raise their children, pay their rent (especially the housing crisis takes on a scourge for the middle class).

They are unable to fight other battles when they even hear that “the welfare state is expensive” and “we live above our potential”, but at the same time we are obliged to allocate hundreds of billions of euros for equipment in the near future.

How will the Gordian bond be resolved? National governments do not have a magic recipe. The Commission claims to have many recipes: European Plan for affordable housing, “affordable cars” initiative, “global health durability” initiative, energy avenues, roadmap to complete the single market, as well as a “business -driven” fund. All this was promised by Ursula von der Layen in Strasbourg’s speech, but no details.

The truth is that details are rarely. And so European citizens- or at least those who take cash statements and pre-election announcements- still wonder when the European competitiveness fund it had promised after its re-election (now it sounds for 2028) and what the commissioner has achieved so far.