Von der Leyen opens State of the Union address in Strasbourg

On September 16, 2026, during the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, Ursula von der Leyen delivered the State of the Union address, the occasion on which the President of the European Commission sets out an assessment of the past year’s achievements and the priorities for the following one, in this case 2027.

One of the issues addressed concerns the ongoing negotiations between the Council, the Parliament and the Commission on the multiannual financial framework for the 2028-2034 period: a dossier that determines the Union’s budget planning over a seven-year span and that remains, as of the date of the speech, subject to negotiation among the three institutions. This is one of the most substantial issues of the current mandate, since the resources available for the other priorities listed in the speech depend on how it is defined.

Among the central themes of the address are also the war in Ukraine, the cost of energy, migration management and the enlargement of the Union towards the Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine. According to the available reconstruction, these latter issues are being addressed against a backdrop of growing nationalist pressures in several countries across the continent, a context that the President of the Commission referred to as the framework for the choices to be made in the coming months.

The State of the Union address is not a legislative act in itself, but a political moment that precedes the following parliamentary year’s activity: the priorities indicated by von der Leyen in Strasbourg generally anticipate the legislative proposals that the Commission will present in the following months, starting with the most immediate dossier, that of the multiannual financial framework still under negotiation among the three institutions. Enlargement towards the Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine, in particular, remains tied to the outcome of those budget negotiations, given that each accession entails a revision of the resources allocated to member states.

The available sources do not report, at this time, the reactions of the parliamentary groups to the address, nor a full text of the speech from which direct quotations could be drawn: the reconstruction reported here is based on the description of the topics covered provided by the available institutional and editorial sources.