It is not a closing speech, but a future speech. This is how the Portuguese commissioner Elisa Ferreira described the speech by the president of the European Commission this morning in Strasbourg.
“What I felt is that, in fact, this is not a speech about the end of the line, nor about the closing of a store, it is a speech for the future, a speech of responsibility for what we started so that we can finish it and implement it. Well we started and what we decided,” he stated.
The commissioner maintained that “there is continuity with oneself, with others, but Europe exists.” “Europe must be protected and valued, especially by young people, at a time when there are so many people who take advantage of any instability to question a project that, clearly, is a project that works and is a project that gives us security, guarantees and future,” he highlighted.
Journalists asked Elisa Ferreira several times about her desire to continue in the European Commission for another period, but she did not want to answer, claiming that it is an issue that, at the moment, is of no interest to anyone.
The speech on the State of the Union, established by the Treaty of Lisbon and delivered for the first time by Durão Barroso, consisted of an assessment of the actions of the community executive and the presentation of the main European bets for the following year.
This Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen gave the last speech of her mandate as head of the community executive.
Source: TSF
