The State of the Union address given by the EU Commission President in September bears the same name as the address given by the US President at the beginning of the year for good reason.
When the then head of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, established the tradition in 2010, it was intended to express the EU's claim to international status (and that of the Brussels staff to leadership).
On Wednesday, his successor was able to point to progress with the corona vaccination, with which the EU has now overtaken the Americans.
In view of the considerable start-up difficulties that Europe had with the vaccination campaign, this is an achievement that has received far too little recognition.
The fact that we are now only dealing with a pandemic of the unvaccinated is thanks to the plentiful supply that the EU has provided.
In Germany, where people like to complain about “Brussels”, it is unfortunately used less than in countries like France or Spain, which have higher vaccination rates than we do.
Containing the virus is important for the EU as an economic powerhouse, but its military weakness remains. In her speech, von der Leyen mainly complained about the lack of political will in this field. She's right, but there is also a lack of equipment in every nook and cranny. The more left-wing parties are involved in the next federal government, the less the chances are that much will change in the largest member state.