The State of the Union address, also known as the State of the European Union or SOTEU, is the annual speech addressed by the President of the European Commission to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

plenary session in September. The State of the Union address of the European Union was instituted by the

Lisbon Treaty The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member sta ...

(with the 2010 Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

- Annex IV(5)), in order to make political life of the Union more democratic and transparent than it previously had been. The Framework Agreement thus also foresees that the President of the European Commission sends a letter of intent to the

President of the European Parliament President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

and the

Presidency of the Council of the European Union The presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, which is the co-legislator of the EU legislature alongside the European Parliament. It rotates among the member state ...

that sets out in detail the actions the European Commission intends to take by means of legislation and other initiatives until the end of the following year. The address is then followed by a plenary debate European Commission
State of the Union 2021
accessed 25 August 2021 on the political situation of the Union, the so-called State of the Union debate.

History

José Manuel Barroso

The first State of the Union speech of the European Union was pronounced on 7 September 2010 by President José Manuel Barroso. There he dealt mainly with the economic situation and unemployment issues; In Barroso's second address, on 28 September 2011, he called for a

eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro ( €) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU polici ...

bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...

and a

financial transactions tax A financial transaction tax (FTT) is a levy on a specific type of financial transaction for a particular purpose. The tax has been most commonly associated with the financial sector for transactions involving intangible property rather than rea ...

to stem the eurozone crisis and came out against the Franco-German proposal for an intergovernmental economic eurozone government - stating that that role belonged to the Commission; In Barroso's third address, on 12 September 2012, he called for a "decisive deal to complete the EMU", by which he meant a new European treaty to "move towards a Federation of nation states", ahead of the European Parliamentary election in 2014. He also acknowledged the need for "a serious discussion between the citizens of Europe about the way forward", calling in particular on all pro-European forces to be mobilised against the anti-European agenda of "the populists and the nationalists".

Jean-Claude Juncker

9 September 2015 marked the first address held by

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...

. It was titled "Time for honesty, unity and solidarity" and opened with the "imperative to act as a union" in order to address the

refugee crisis A refugee crisis can refer to difficulties and dangerous situations in the reception of large groups of forcibly displaced persons. These could be either internally displaced, refugees, asylum seekers or any other huge groups of migrants. A ...

. Juncker used his 2017 State of the Union address to call for "a stronger single market".Publications Office of the EU
Commission Recommendation (EU) 2017/1805 of 3 October 2017 on the professionalisation of public procurement — Building an architecture for the professionalisation of public procurement (Text with EEA relevance)
accessed 28 April 2021

Ursula von der Leyen

In 2020, on

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding suc ...

restated the withdrawal agreement is an agreed and ratified divorce agreement: Her 2021 address has been delivered on 15 September 2021:

History

José Manuel Barroso

Jean-Claude Juncker

Ursula von der Leyen

References

Further reading

External links