“Check against delivery”
Thank you, President Metsola, dear Roberta,
President of the European Council, dear António,
Honourable Members,
It is a pleasure to participate for the first time in this Plenary debate with President Costa. I want to start by thanking you, dear António, for the excellent cooperation in the first weeks of our mandate. The early weeks of 2025 show the changes in global politics. We have entered a new era of intense geopolitical competition. Major powers focus primarily on interests. This new dynamic will increasingly define the relationships between global players. The rules of engagement are shifting. Some in Europe may not welcome this new reality, but we must confront it. Our values do not change, but to defend them, something must change.
First, we have work to do at home. To protect our interests and uphold our values, we must be economically strong. Europe has all the tools to play its role successfully. We have a private sector with a long tradition of innovation. We have a top-class workforce. We have a unique social system to protect people from major risks. And we have a vast internal market of 450 million people. That is our safe harbor in rough waters and our strongest leverage in tough negotiations. But our Union and internal market need attention and care. For us Europeans, the global race begins at home. All Member States agree on this. It is the core of the Budapest declaration on competitiveness we agreed during the Hungarian Presidency. And now under the Polish Presidency, this consensus must turn into action. That is why next week we will present our new Competitiveness Compass, which turns the excellent Draghi report into action. It will be the guiding star for the new Commission and steer our work for the next five years. We are setting three goals: first, closing the innovation gap with our competitors. Second, a joint roadmap for decarbonization and competitiveness. And third, strengthening our economic resilience and security. Let me give you some insights on each.
On innovation, Draghis analysis is clear. There is a vicious circle of low investment and low innovation. This has led, for example, to slower adoption of digital technologies. How do we break this cycle? Public investment must play a role. To be effective, coordination between the European level and Member States must improve. Especially in a few strategic areas, like AI, quantum and biotechnologies. We must invest there, but Member States must also contribute. Public funding alone will never be sufficient. To boost innovation at the right speed and scale, private capital is crucial. The good news is that European companies are already ramping up their investments in innovation. Last year, Europes industry increased its R&D investment by almost 10%. For the first time in ten years, thats more than both the US and China. Thanks to these efforts, we are back in second position globally in terms of total private R&D investment. We must continue on this path. And to support this, we are launching the European Savings and Investment Union. We will create new European saving and investment products, new incentives for risk capital, and a new push to ensure the seamless flow of investment across our Union. We must mobilize more capital, to let made-in-Europe innovation and risk-taking thrive.
Second, I would like to focus on the issue of energy prices. Energy prices in Europe are still structurally higher than in the US or China and vary significantly across the EU. We must bring them down, while we complete the phase-out from Russian fossil fuels. Both objectives are important and should go hand in hand. How can we achieve this? Not only must we continue to diversify our energy supplies. We will have to invest in next-generation clean energy technologies, like fusion, enhanced geothermal, and solid-state batteries. We must also mobilize more private capital to modernize our grids and storage infrastructure. We must remove any remaining barriers to our Energy Union. And we must better connect our clean and low-carbon energy systems. All of this will be part of a new affordable energy plan that we will present in February.
My third and final point is how to bolster our economic resilience and security. Global powers are now vying for access to raw materials and vital supply chains. In the last years, we have concluded more than 35 new agreements with partners across the world, precisely to ensure our access to raw materials or clean hydrogen, and to diversify some of our clean-tech supply chains. This work will be even more crucial in the years ahead. Since the start of the mandate, in less than two months, we have already concluded three new partnerships with Mercosur, Mexico and Switzerland. And last Monday, we relaunched our negotiations with Malaysia. These partnerships address some of our key economic interests. They open new and dynamic export markets. They protect our distinctive products and key sectors like agriculture. And they guarantee our access to critical minerals and clean energy. Widening our network of partnerships was a central recommendation of the Draghi report. And we work with Parliament and Council to move these deals forward.
This new engagement with countries across the world is not only an economic necessity, but a message to the world. It is Europes response to rising global competition. We want more cooperation with all who are open for it. And this of course includes our closest partners. I think, of course, of the United States of America. No other economies in the world are as integrated as Europe and America. Millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic depend on our trade and investments. The trade volume between us is EUR 1.5 trillion. And beyond these numbers there is so much more. Friendships, family ties, common history and culture. This is something we will always keep in mind as we engage with the new administration. Our first priority will be to engage early, discuss common interests, and be ready to negotiate. And when the time to negotiate comes, we will be pragmatic in seeking common ground. But I also want you to know that we will always stand by our European principles.
Thank you, and long live Europe.