European Union without people in mind. What a waste!

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s 2026 State of the Union Address outlined a plan that is far too little far too late. . While CDN believes that we need to talk about solutions to various crises that youth of Eastern Europe are facing, we must stress that Europe now must move from declarations to concrete action. This is our take on the State of the European Union.

Europe needs to accelerate the transition to green energy and electrification in response to growing geopolitical and security challenges, with the latest one being the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. This serves as a clear and unmistakable reminder that  Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels is both a climate and security vulnerability. 

Lets not forget that Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, and the droughts experienced across Europe this year are yet another warning that the climate crisis is already here. Therefore, the EU must massively increase investment in renewable energy, electrification, energy efficiency and resilient infrastructure, while ensuring that every Member State has the capacity to deliver on common European climate goals.

As part of efforts to strengthen Europe’s security architecture, the President of the European Commission proposed the creation of a European Security Council, which is a good step, but Europe’s security needs go far beyond another coordinating institution. Recent violations of European airspace and attacks on buildings and infrastructure by russia, especially affecting Eastern European territory demonstrate that threat is already here. russia’s hybrid warfare will not wait for European institutions to finish building their response. Europe needs stronger capabilities, faster decision-making, resilient infrastructure and the ability to respond collectively to threats. 

President von der Leyen reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defence while calling for Palestinians to be able to live in peace, and rejected Israel’s E1 settlement plan. Although, she keeps forgetting that Palestinians cannot live in peace while you are suffering from flagrant violation of the Humanitarian Law, genocide and occupation.  

However, the brutal abuse of self-defence and international law by Israel cannot be something we look away from, self-defence cannot be used to justify the systematic killing of civilians or violations of international humanitarian law. What Israel is doing is not self-defence, it’s genocide, while IDF’s targeting of civilian infrastructure and viewing the deaths of Palestinian civilians as collateral is monstrous violation of the international law. 

The EU must apply its values in all its interactions, and when it comes to Israel that means a suspension of the established agreements with Israel. CDN calls upon the Commission to propose this suspension and we urge the Member States to unanimously adopt the suspension of the Association agreement with Israel.

This is further reflected in her reaction to the state funeral of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić, in Belgrade. Only a year ago, she was addressing the dictator and a nationalist that organised that funeral, “Dear Aleksandar”. Now, we are supposed to believe that, quoting the official English translation from French, that “I was horrified by the pictures from Ratko Mladić’s funeral in Belgrade last week. Glorifying war criminals simply has no place in the European Union”. Then, we just have one question to Ursula von der Leyen: Why did you spend over a decade warming relations with a person that publicly demanded in the parliament of Serbia that “We should kill a hundred Bosniak for every Serbian killed”. Why did you turn a blind eye to the man that went to Sarajevo in the middle of the brutal siege of the city to boost support for those same war criminals he is burying 30 years later? Why didn't you listen to the people, the opposition, the media, the civil society, and at the end of it, students, who are risking their lives and the lives of their families for the fight of a European Serbia. We share your horror regarding the funeral, but we are also horrified that it took you so long to say anything.

For years, the European Parliament has raised concerns about democratic backsliding, pressure on political opponents, attacks against journalists, institutional weaknesses and corruption that the Commission that she leads keeps on ignoring. We can only hope that something might change, but we remain sceptical.

In Turkey, LGBTQIA+ activists continue to face repression and arrests. In Georgia, the authorities have increasingly targeted political opponents, civil society and dissenting voices.

The European Union must apply the same standard everywhere, without compromises. The EU already has mechanisms for monitoring democratic deterioration and they must be taken seriously and acted upon. European values cannot depend on the political convenience of EPP.

Furthermore, President von der Leyen announced proposals to protect children online, including restrictions on social media access for younger users, while stressing that Europe, not Big Tech, should decide how its digital environment is regulated.

CDN believes that age restrictions alone do not solve the underlying problem of an economic model built around maximising attention, engagement and dependency. Algorithms are designed to keep users online, push increasingly extreme or personalised content and place people inside information bubbles and moving the age limit does not change that system.

The EU must regulate addictive design of algorithms, transparency and the business models that turn human attention into profit. The question is not only when children should enter social media. The question is what kind of social media we are willing to allow.

The State of the Union Address contains important commitments on climate, security, digital rights, human rights and democracy. 

We need a Europe that invests in its green transition, protects people fleeing violence, regulates the power of Big Tech, strengthens its ability to defend itself and stands firmly against democratic backsliding.

The European Union must not only speak about its values. It must have the courage to act on them.