On the occasion of first 100 days of his second term, The president of the CE has reviewed everything he has done in these few more than two months with thoroughness – his projects to improve European competitiveness, his brand new plan to provide the EU in the next 10 years COS with 800,000 million euros … – But to journalists we are more interested in the news, and as the essential component of any news is the novelty, these are the three things that we can highlight from the informative point of their appearance.
Security College
The first novelty is that Ursula von der Leyen He is creating what he has called a “Security College”, which is nothing other than European Commissioners’ Meetings to evaluate the external and internal security situation in the European Union and be aware of possible threats thanks also to information that expects it to be provided by national security services. Which confirms that the civil nature of this EU is mutating towards something more military, according to the times.
“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and this also applies to the commission. To deal with the difficult way ahead we have to change towards a preparation mentality. Therefore, in the coming weeks I will convene the first security school, ”says the president of the Commission.
Mutualize safety financing
The second novelty is the confirmation that, although they were not collected as such in what was approved last Thursday at the Brussels summit, Eurobones to finance the defense are not discarded either. “I did not exclude subsidies for the defense of the EU,” he said exactly answering a question about whether the commission is willing to explore the subsidy hypothesis instead of loans. “Nothing is out of the table. I am open to what is necessary”, “but now the priority is to materialize the proposals of the Rearm Plan, which is enough, we can explore ideas of the Member States later.”
In this way, it responds to the president of the Spanish Government, who had sent a letter proposing a “genuinely involved European to finance the defense.” This type of financing is already a classic in the Money discussions in Brussels: It is normal for countries such as France and Germany to be denied, however during the pandemic, they accepted a common debt for the first time with the recovery plan. A historical milestone to which he grabs Pedro Sánchez hoping to repeat it.
In fact, at the press conference of the Summit last week, asked about this issue, the President of the Government accepted that the Eurobons were not mentioned in the conclusions to add immediate Debt mutualization.
Unified Returns Policy
The third novelty that the president of the CE has advanced in the question shift is her intention to propose this week a Plan to unify with common criteria the return policy of immigrants that do not meet the requirements to stay in the EU. Immigration is always a sensitive issue in the EU, and the proposal of Von der Leyen is necessarily leaving some more happy than others.
According to the head of the Community Executive, which has changed in these hundred days with respect to his first mandate is the “new feeling of urgency”, “something fundamental has changed”: “Our European values - democracy, freedom and rule of law – are under threat”. “Sovereignty and armored commitments are being questioned. Everything is more transactional, so the rhythm of change has accelerated.”
