During the plenary session (13-16 September 2021) in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Ursula VON DER LEYEN delivers the State of the European Union (SOTEU 2021) to the MEPs. Part 2 of the opening statement by Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, on the following topics: - Success of the European vaccination campaign and the delivery of vaccines to Africa (200 million doses to the continent) - Economy: support to over 31 million workers and 2.5 million companies across Europe; investments in digital skills and infrastructures. Investments in the chips production. - Social and Equity: New European Health Strategy; Fight against tax fraud and tax evasion. - Youth: Next Generation EU shoul be funded by new own resources; Proposal to make 2022 the year of European youth. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Part 2/5 - State of the European Union 2021 debate: opening statement by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission, on a Europe united through adversity and recovery - Economy - Social and Equity - Youth

Title: State of the European Union 2021 debate: opening statement by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission, on a Europe united through adversity and recovery - Economy - Social and Equity - Youth

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honorable members. A year is long in the time of pandemic's. When I stood here in front of you 12 months ago, I did not know when or even if we could have a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19. But today, against all critics, Europe is among the world leaders. More than 70 percent of our adult population is fully vaccinated. We were the only ones to share half of our vaccine production with the rest of the world. We delivered more than 700 million doses of vaccines to the Europeans.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We delivered. Indeed, we delivered also more than 700 million to the rest of the world, to more than 130 countries, and we are the only region in the world to achieve that. Honorable members, a pandemic is a marathon, it's not a sprint. We follow the science, we deliver to Europe, we deliver to the rest of the world. We did it the right way because we did it the European way. And I think it worked.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, But while we have every reason to be confident. We have no reason to be complacent. Our first and most urgent priority is to speed up global vaccination. With less than one percent of global doses administered in low income countries, the scale of injustice and the level of urgency is obvious. This is one of the great geopolitical issues in our time. Team Europe is investing one billion euro to ramp up mRNA production capacity with Africa. We have already committed to share 250 million doses of vaccine. I can announce today that the commission will add a new donation of another 200 million doses until the middle of next year. This is an investment in solidarity and it is an investment also in global health.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, The second priority is to continue our efforts here in Europe. We see worrisome divergences between member states, what vaccination rates are concerned. So we need to keep up the momentum and Europe is ready. We have one point eight billion additional doses secured. This is enough for us and our neighborhood when booster shots are needed. So let's do everything possible that this does not turn into a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honorable members. The work on the European Health Union is a big step forward, and I want to thank this house for your support. We have shown that when we act together, we can act fast. Take the EU digital certificate. Today, more than 400 million certificates have been generated across Europe. 42 countries in four different continents are plugged in. We proposed it in March. You pushed hard. You helped enormously. Three months later, three months later only it was up and running. So why are the rest of the world was talking about ? Europe Just did it.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And we did a lot of things right. We moved fast to create sure. This supported over 31 million workers and 2.5 million companies across Europe. We learned the lessons from the past when we were too divided and too delayed and the difference is stark. Last time it took us eight years for the Eurozone GDP to get back to pre-crisis level. This time, we expect 19 countries to be at pre pandemic levels this year with the rest following next. Growth in the euro area outpaced both the US and China in the last quarter. But this is only the beginning.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And the lessons from the financial crisis could serve as a cautionary tale. At that time, Europe declared victory too soon. And we paid the price for that and we will not repeat that mistake. The good news is that with NextGenerationEU we will both invest in short term recovery and in the long term prosperity. We will address structural issues in our economy from labor market reforms in Spain to pension reforms in Slovenia or to tax reforms in Austria, for example. In an unprecedented manner.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We will invest in 5G and fiber. But equally important is the investment in digital skills. This is such an important topic, this task needs leaders attention and it needs a structured dialog at top level. We really have to emphasize that and put a strong focus on it. Our response provides a clear direction to market and investors alike. But as we look ahead. We also need to reflect on how the crisis has affected the shape of our economy from increased debts to uneven impact on different sectors or new ways of working. And to do that. The Commission will relaunch the discussion on the Economic Governance Review in the coming weeks. The aim is to build a consensus on the way forward. Well ahead of 2023.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Honorable members, we will soon celebrate 30 years of single market. For 30 years, it has been the great enabler of progress and prosperity in Europe. At the outset of the pandemic, we had to defend it against the pressures of erosion and fragmentation. For our recovery, the single market is the driver of good jobs and competitiveness. And that is particularly important in the digital single market. We have made ambitious proposals in the last year, for example, to contain the gatekeeper power of the major platforms to underpin their democratic responsibilities of those platforms, to foster innovation, to channel the power of artificial intelligence. Digital is the make or break issue. And member states also share that view. For example, if you look at the details of spending in next generation, you and, you know, we have a 20 percent target. We will even overshoot that 20 percent target. That is good. That reflects the importance of investing in our European tech sovereignity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, But allow me to focus on semiconductors for a moment. These tiny chips that make everything work. From smartphones to electric scooters, from trains to entire smart factories. There is no digital without those chips. And why are we speak? Hold production lines are already working at reduced speed despite growing demand because of a shortage of semiconductors.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And while global demand has exploded, Europe's share across the entire value chain from the design or manufacturing capacities has shrunk. We depend right now on state of the art ships manufactured by Asia. So this is not just a matter of our competitiveness, this is also a matter of tax sovereignty. So let's put all our forces in it to improve the situation. We will present a new European chipps act. We need to link together a world class research design and testing capacities. We need to coordinate the European level and the national investment along the value chain. And the aim is to jointly create a state of the art European chip ecosystem, including production.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, That ensures our security of supply and we'll develop new markets for groundbreaking European tech. And yes, I know this is a daunting task without any question, a big, big goal that I put out there, and I know there are some now that claim it cannot be done, but they have said the same 20 years ago about Galileo, Galileo, and now look where we are. We got our act together today. Europe's satellite provide the navigation system for more than two billion smartphones worldwide. So we did it once. We are world leaders in Galileo. Now, let's be bold again and let's focus all our forces on the semiconductors and let's go and be a world leader again. This should be our aim.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Madame, deputy, ladies and gentlemen, honorable members, the pandemic has left deep scars with an enormous impact on our social market economy. Evening after evening, we all stood at our windows, in our doorways to applaud the work of the frontline workers. We all felt how much we depended on their work, how much we depended on the work of those men and women who devote their efforts on a low salary with insecure jobs to our health.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, So the applause might have died down, but I think the force of our appreciation should continue. And that is why the implementation of the European pillar of social rights is so important. We are talking about decent work. Creating fair working conditions, better health care. And striking the right work life balance, if the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is the value of our time and there is no time more precious than the time we spend with those close to us, with our friends and family.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, So this is why we are promoting a new European health strategy, health care strategy to ensure that every man and woman woman can benefit from the best possible care and find the right work life balance. But ladies and gentlemen, social justice is not just a question of time, it is also a question of tax fairness in our social market economy.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, It is a good thing for businesses to make profits, but if they make profits, it is thanks to the quality of our infrastructure, of our Social Security systems, of our education systems. So the least that we can expect is that the businesses should make their fair contribution.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, And that is why we will continue to fight against tax fraud and tax evasion. We are going to propose a legal act to try to get at the profits hidden behind those companies, straw companies. And we want to mobilize efforts to achieve a worldwide minimum corporate tax to pay a fair amount of tax is not just a question of ensuring proper public finances, but it is quite simply a question of fairness and justice.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Ladies and gentlemen, we have all benefited from the foundations of our European social market economy, and therefore we have to ensure that the next generation can also build on those foundations their future. We have a highly educated young generation, a highly talented younger generation, and one full of motivation.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We have a generation, a new generation that has had to sacrifice so much in order to protect the safety of others. Usually when you're young is the time to expand your horizons, make new experiences, make friends for life, find your path in life. But what have we been asking? What are we asking of young people today? We are asking them to observe social distancing measures.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We are asking them to stay at home, to study at home, and we've asked them to do this for more than a year. So that's why everything that we are doing the green deal next generation EU aims to protect the future of those young people. That is why the next generation must be funded by new own resources, which we are working on at the moment.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Well, eager, but we also have to ensure that we don't create new rifts because Europe needs all its young people. We have to encourage those who are falling through the gaps in the net, those people who do not have a job, those people who are neither in education or training.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, For those young people we want to offer a new program, Alma. Alma will offer young people the possibility to get some temporary work experience in another member state because they, too, have the right to have an experience like Erasmus to gain skills and experience, to create links and to forge a new European identity.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, But if we want to redesign our union in their image, young people also should be able to shape the future of Europe. Europe should have a soul and a vision that speaks to those young people, as Jacques Delors called for when he said, How can we build Europe if young people do not see it as a collective project, as a project that reflects their future. And this is why we will propose to make 2022 the year of European youth.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Let's have a year devoted to putting the spotlight on these young people who have given up so much to others and young people should be leading the debate in the conference on the future of the of Europe, because it's their future and it should be their conference. And as we have said at the beginning of our mandate, the commission is ready to follow through on points decided by the Conference.

Part 2/5 - State of the European Union 2021 debate: opening statement by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission, on a Europe united through adversity and recovery - Economy - Social and Equity - Youth

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