Von der Leyen fleshes out Carney’s vision to paint Europe as leader of world’s middle powers

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered a major speech on Wednesday, positioning Europe as the leader of a group of like-minded nations seeking to stand up to powerful adversaries like Russia and China. The address was targeted at an audience that included Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who recently had a public disagreement with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Von der Leyen proposed new partnerships and closer ties with nations including the U.K., Norway, Canada and Ukraine. She suggested the creation of a "European Security Council" outside of NATO, designed to tackle hybrid threats without U.S. involvement. The speech also touched on addressing challenges such as climate change, Chinese industrial overcapacity, and frontier AI models.

However, some observers noted that the speech was more focused on lofty ideas than practical solutions to the EU's immediate challenges, such as its struggling economy and high inflation. The EU economy is currently dealing with anemic growth and high energy prices, and the Commission president did not propose new solutions to address Ukraine's immediate financing needs.

Furthermore, von der Leyen did not offer new policy proposals regarding China, but reiterated existing proposals to strengthen dialogue with Beijing. The speech also failed to tackle some of the major foreign policy disputes between EU capitals, such as the Middle East and Israel's relationship with the Palestinian territories. Critics argued that the Security Council idea proposed by von der Leyen could signal to the world that NATO is irrelevant and undermine its role in regional security.