{"id":414639,"date":"2025-09-11T02:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T02:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414639\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T02:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T02:03:14","slug":"eu-state-of-the-union-speech-what-co-ops-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414639\/","title":{"rendered":"EU State of the Union speech \u2013 what co-ops need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen delivered her State of the Union speech<\/a> at the European Parliament on 10 September, announcing a series of policies that will impact co-ops in the EU and beyond.<\/p>\n

The speech, which came shortly after Poland had shot down Russian drones in its airspace, included a loan aid and bonuses for states that support Ukraine\u00a0along with an \u2018Eastern Flank Watch\u2019 programme to improve real-time surveillance of EU countries bordering Russia. Other key foreign policy proposals included steps to bring future member states such as Moldova and western Balkan states closer to the EU, and a partial suspension of trade aspects of the EU-Israel Association Agreement\u00a0and\u00a0bilateral support with Israel in response to the famine in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Regarding competitiveness and innovation, von der Leyen\u2019s proposals included a multi-billion Scale-up Europe Fund to make large-scale investments in young, fast-growing tech companies, which could benefit tech co-ops, including platform co-ops.<\/p>\n

European co-ops, especially in green sectors, could also take advantage of the Made in Europe criteria in public procurement, which forms part of the EU\u2019s new Clean Industrial Deal.<\/p>\n

And Von der Leyen mentioned the EU\u2019s Circular Economy Act, due for adoption in 2026, which aims to\u00a0establish a single market for secondary raw materials,\u00a0increase the supply of high-quality recycled materials\u00a0and\u00a0stimulate demand for these materials in the EU.<\/p>\n

Related: Europe\u2019s social economy plan at risk, warns midterm review<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to generate\u00a0more homegrown renewables\u201d, she said, but added that nuclear must form \u201ca baseload\u201d, and the EU needs to \u201curgently modernise\u201d and invest in its infrastructure and interconnectors. To this end, she announced two new initiatives: a new\u00a0Grids Package\u00a0to strengthen the EU\u2019s grid infrastructure and an Energy Highway to remove <\/strong>eight critical infrastructure bottlenecks.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen also highlighted the need to ensure a just transition for all, mentioning the EU\u2019s Social Climate Fund which will give member states dedicated funding to directly support vulnerable groups such as households\u00a0in energy or transport poverty.<\/p>\n

On housing, von der Leyen admitted the EU faced a social crisis fuelled by soaring prices and and a reduction in building permits. The Commission will launch a European Affordable Housing plan this year, she said, to make initiatives such as student housing construction easier, and convene a European housing summit.<\/p>\n

With farmers protesting the EU-Mercosur deal <\/a>and the proposed changes to the allocation of funding under the CAP<\/a>, von Der Leyen tried to reassure the sector. She said the implementation of unfair trading practices legislation will be reviewed and action taken where needed. She also announced a Buy European food campaign to support EU producers.<\/p>\n

She also defended the recent EU-US trade deal on the grounds that exceptions had been secured \u2013 the deal has been contested by co-op apexes Copa and Cogeca, Cooperatives Europe and REScoop.eu.<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to the speech, Cooperatives Europe published an open letter to von der Leyen, calling on the Commission to: ensure EU competition and business policies reflect all business models, including co-ops; adapt finance, public procurement and state aid to better reach SMEs and co-ops, enabling them to scale up and compete; and guarantee protected minimum allocations for social economy actors in EU funds, including Cohesion Policy and the European Social Fund, and maintain strong social conditionalities.<\/p>\n

Responding to the speech, RESCoop.eu, the the European federation of energy communities, welcomed the \u2018Made in EU\u2019 criteria for public procurement, the new electricity grids package and the upcoming European Housing conference. However, it criticised the lack of focus on citizen initiatives and the social economy and lack of climate ambition. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday von der Leyen emphasised that a new Europe must emerge. In the face of external threats, we urge Europe to put citizens and democratic principles at the centre,\u201d said Ilonka Marselis, REScoop\u2019eu\u2019s vice president.<\/p>\n

Copa and Cogeca, the voice of European farmers and their co-ops, also responded to the speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs EU agriculture stands at a political tipping point, one could have expected more than incantatory words and a token measure on promoting \u2018Made in Europe,\u201d they said. Copa and Cogeca said the speech lacked concrete commitments, clarification and vision regarding the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgriculture \u2014 crucial for Europe\u2019s food and energy security \u2014 was barely mentioned, tucked away at the end of a key section of her speech. Yet another sign that agriculture is no longer regarded by von der Leyen\u2019s Commission as a core sector, but relegated to the second tier of the Union\u2019s priorities, treated as a bargaining chip in trade disputes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, hope came from the significant number of references made by MEPs who, unlike the Commission, have not forgotten the promises made to farmers in 2024 before and during the EU elections. In the weeks and months ahead, the European Parliament will have to take a stand on all these Commission initiatives. Europe\u2019s farming communities are counting on their support to restore vision and perspective,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen delivered her State of the Union speech at the European Parliament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2311,115313,142367,2000,142368,299,5187,1699,115314,42800],"class_list":{"0":"post-414639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-cooperatives-europe","10":"tag-copa-cogeca","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-eu-mercosur-trade-deal","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-rescoop","17":"tag-us-eu-trade-deal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115183209901530457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}