Last Friday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participated in an informal meeting of the European Council in Budapest.
At the summit, EU Leaders adopted the Budapest Declaration , which lays out a new European Competitiveness Deal to address the current geopolitical, economic, and demographic challenges and ensure Europe's continued prosperity.
The basis for the discussion was the recent report prepared by professor Mario Draghi, who also took part in the summit and presented his findings to the Leaders.
In her statement to the press after the summit, President von der Leyen particularly highlighted the need for innovation, investment, and strategic security.
She highlighted the urgent need to reduce the regulatory barriers to innovation by cutting red tape. She presented her idea to propose a common 28th regulatory regime with a single rule book for innovative start-ups in the whole European Union.
"We have around 182,000 innovative SMEs: So this will give them access to the whole Single Market and give them the possibility to scale up. The goal is indeed to use the full Single Market to scale up," the President said.
Furthermore, she signalled to move forward the work on a European Savings and Investments Union, to mobilise private capital investments in European innovation.
The President also spoke of the need to have a joint plan for competitiveness, decarbonisation and digitalisation, which the new Commission will address in its first 100 days with the Clean Industrial Deal. Likewise, Leaders spoke of the importance to reinforce the EU's strategic security, and secure supply chains, especially when it comes to critical raw materials.
EU Leaders also took stock of the result of the elections in the United States. President von der Leyen said: "The United States is our biggest economic and trading partner. We share a unique historical bond. And our citizens share millions of friendships across the Atlantic. So it is important to build good relations with the new administration from the very beginning. This is how we will continue to shape a positive transatlantic agenda."
She also mentioned that she spoke by phone to President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him and discussed several topics including Ukraine, defence, trade, and energy.
Finally, President von der Leyen used the opportunity to thank outgoing European Council President Charles Michel, saying that: "today we are stronger than we were five years ago, and this is also your success."
European Political Community meets again to strengthen the extended European family
On Thursday, President von der Leyen also participated in the 5th meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), which brought together over 40 European Heads of State and Government from EU Member States as well as 18 other European states.
The summit focused on the continent's security challenges, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, the US elections, migration, economic security, and connectivity.
In the sidelines of the EPC, the President, together with other leaders met with Moldova's President Maia Sandu. In a statement following the meeting, they congratulated President Sandu for her victory in Moldova's presidential elections and welcomed the positive vote on enshrining EU accession in Moldova's Constitution.
President von der Leyen also used the occasion to hold bilateral meetings with the President of the Swiss Federation Viola Amherd, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, underlining the EPC's value as a venue for leaders to meet and exchange views on common challenges and opportunities.
