EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has delivered her first State of the Union Address to the EU Parliament in Brussels in which she addressed what she sees as the priorities of the EU. Brexit was mentioned briefly in a section of the speech between relations with the USA and Balkans. She robustly defended the withdrawal agreement which created the controversial Irish protocol to preserve the status quo in the island of Ireland. This is now the subject of legislation in the UK Parliament to circumvent the withdrawal agreement in relation to Northern Ireland. The EU Commission President described it as having been negotiated line-by-line, word-by-word and ratified by both the EU and UK Parliaments.

Given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it was unsurprising that a long section of her address focused on the EU response and the need for collective action between member states on health matters. The president was also robust in defending the values of the single market and how the EU had to preserve these. This seemed as much for the benefit of eastern EU member states who have a strained relationship with EU standards and values as the departed UK.

The EU Green Deal which is the theme of this Commission set out by President Van der Leyen when she came into office last December, so it was unsurprising that she dedicated a chunk of her address to it. She reaffirmed her ambition that Europe would be the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050 and recognised that some countries would have more difficulties that others but that the just transition fund would leave nobody behind. Agriculture wasn’t mentioned specifically other than referring to current land use not being sustainable.

Von der Leyen also wants the EU to be global leaders in the development and adoption of new technology and migration issues also remain a concern. It was a wide ranging political address without specific reference to agriculture or farming other than in the context of climate change and the Green Deal.