State of the Union

On 7 September 2010, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, outlined his priorities for the years to come in his first “State of the (European) Union” speech.

He focused on five salient issues:

• strengthen economic governance;
• restore growth and employment, including through “green jobs”;
• revise the European budget and create an EU Tax enabling the EU to raise its own resources;
• combat the exploitation of illegal immigrants, terrorism and organised crime;
• heighten Europe’s ambition on the international scene.

In their responses to Mr Barroso's speech, the political group leaders touched on the following points:

• the idea of an EU Tax was supported (EPP);
• the State of the Union was criticised. The European Commission is failing to play its role of initiator; the "community method" should be defended against "intergovernmentalism" (S&D);
• a genuine economic governance should be established;
• lastly, the treatment of the Roma, notably by France, was heavily criticised (S&D, Greens, GUE/NGL).