The European Commission president will push a vision of the bloc that is handing momentum to the political opposition
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will deliver her annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Here’s what she won’t tell you about the state of the EU – an increasingly militarized and authoritarian superstructure fighting to hold itself together.
The speech is a relatively new tradition in EU history, with the first formal State of the Union address given by former President Jose Manuel Barroso in 2010. The 2009 Lisbon Treaty dramatically expanded the powers of the commission – creating a foreign policy department under its control and granting it exclusive rights to propose common migration and energy legislation – and the speech resembles the more widely-known American State of the Union address: a powerful executive setting out their agenda for the coming year.
Von der Leyen’s office has said that this year’s speech will focus on the bloc’s successes in economic competitiveness, trade, foreign relations, defense, and “unwavering support” for Ukraine. Behind these talking points, here’s what she’ll leave out.
State of the Union preparations – SOTEU, for short – are now in full swing.
I am now meeting with the Conference of Presidents at @Europarl_EN.
Because SOTEU is woven from many threads.
I will see you all in Strasbourg on 16 September.
I’m very much looking forward to it. pic.twitter.com/9p3nCRh75b
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 9, 2026
An authoritarian and centralized union
Both the European Commission and von der Leyen herself significantly consolidated their power in 2026. Von der Leyen began by appointing 26 commissioners without running the list past the European Parliament first, and deliberately withholding budget and internal market strategy documents from member states until hours before publication, making deliberation impossible.
