Prague, 30 August 2024
Keynote speech
Thank you very much Chairman for your kind words,
Presidents,
Prime Ministers,
Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a big privilege for me to be here in Prague today, I would say at Central Europe’s most renowned security conference. This is my first public address since I was elected to lead the European Commission for a second mandate. And I think there is no better place than being here and give the first speech after this election.
The new reality is that Central Europe is not only geographically at the heart of Europe. But it is also politically and strategically central to the future of the European Union. Last year, the biggest investors in this region were not German or French companies – but Czech companies. Poland is one of Europe’s most dynamic economies. The resilience of most Central European countries in the face of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine was and is remarkable. So when we talk about competitiveness, I think Europe’s West has a lot to learn from Europe’s East.
In the last three years, Europe has discovered another side of this region’s impressive strength. Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, you have become the beating heart of European solidarity. And this is still the case today, after two and a half years of Russian aggression and brutality. Almost on the very same day, when Prague will celebrate 35 years of the Velvet Revolution, the world will mark 1,000 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. There is nothing ‘velvet’ about Putin’s war. So many innocent people have been killed. So many cities have been razed to the ground. So many families have been torn apart. One day we will know how many young men and women born in 1989 were killed in 2024. But there is something else we already know. Peace cannot be taken for granted. You warned already years ago about Putin’s intentions. Well, we should have listened better to Central and Eastern Europe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today, some politicians inside our Union, and even in this part of Europe, are muddying the waters of our conversation about Ukraine. They blame the war not on the invader but on the invaded; not on Putin’s lust for power but on Ukraine’s thirst for freedom. So I want to ask them: Would you ever blame Hungarians for the Soviet invasion of 1956? Would you ever blame Czechs for the Soviet repression of 1968? The answer to these questions is very clear: The Kremlin’s behaviour was illegal and atrocious back then. And the Kremlin’s behaviour is illegal and atrocious today. We Europeans have many different histories. We speak many different languages, but in no language is peace synonymous with surrender. In no language is sovereignty synonymous with occupation. So those who argue to stop support for Ukraine do not argue for peace. They argue for appeasement and the subjugation of Ukraine.
So today I would like to address all those who, after 1,000 days of death and destruction, are asking sincerely: Is it not time for talks? It is first and foremost up to our Ukrainian friends to answer this question. We and them want the war to stop as soon as possible. But while many outside Europe are pre-occupied only with the end of fighting, my position is that peace is not simply the absence of war. Peace is a settlement that makes war impossible and unnecessary. Therefore, we must put Ukraine in the condition of negotiating such peace. And this is why the integration of Ukraine in our European Union is for us at the heart of our peace effort.
If we want true peace, we must fundamentally rethink the foundation of Europe’s security architecture. Russia’s invasion has been an eye-opener for Europe. What lies in ruins are not only Ukrainian cities but also many of our basic security assumptions. For decades, many said that economic inter-dependence was the ultimate source of security. You all know that Europe was buying Russian gas. And this was supposed to be the guarantee that Moscow would never start a new war on the old continent. This was an illusion. Putin has traded his country’s prosperity for his own imperial ambitions. And our own dependency on Russia has become an asset in Putin’s hands.
What was believed to be a source of security was in fact a source of vulnerability. As Russia started to move its troops towards the border with Ukraine, it also turned off the gas tap to blackmail Europe. We all remember the shock and horror when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began but also the fear of blackouts in Europe. These fears have never materialised. Why is that? Europe got the support of all our partners, immediately. The United States for example immediately stepped up the LNG deliveries, and Norway increased the pipeline gas deliveries. But we also helped ourselves. We built new infrastructure. We bought energy together to have a strong market power. We brought prices down and under control – they are still too high, but we brought them down quite a lot. But most importantly, we have worked on a structural response to this crisis. We invested massively in renewable energy. And we are investing in the fuels of the future, like for example clean hydrogen. And the result speaks for itself. In the first half of this year, 50% of all our electricity generation came from renewables. Wind and solar generated more electricity than all fossil fuels combined. Putin’s attempt to blackmail our Union has not only utterly failed, actually he triggered the boost of European homegrown, renewable energy that makes us independent.
And we have learnt our lesson. When we speak about our energy, we have to produce more of our own energy – more renewables, more nuclear, more efficiency. When we speak about our technologies, semi-conductors and artificial intelligence, we have to design our own European solutions. For me, innovation and competitiveness are not only an essential part of our future prosperity, but they are also an essential and crucial part of our long-term security.
There is also a second lesson we have learnt. Europe has overcome its long-standing unwillingness to spend enough on its own defence. And here I come to the point of our transatlantic cooperation. I cannot overemphasise the importance of the US’ support for Ukraine since the start of this war. Once again, America has stood up for the freedom of all Europeans. I feel a deep sense of gratitude for this but also a deep sense of responsibility. Protecting Europe is first and foremost Europe’s duty. And while NATO must remain the centre of our collective defence, we need a much stronger European pillar. We Europeans need to have the means to defend and protect ourselves and deter any possible adversaries.
Since the start of the war, we have already made unprecedented progress. Member States have stepped up their defence spending, from just over EUR 200 billion before the war to almost EUR 300 billion this year. And our defence industry has also stepped up to the new reality. We have reopened production lines. We have placed new orders, and we are cutting red tape to produce more and more quickly. But this is not enough. The reality is that even if Europeans take the current security threats seriously, it will take time and massive investment to re-structure our defence industries. Our aim must be to build continent-size defence output. And Central Europe is very well positioned to be one of the drivers and one of the great beneficiaries of this new push for the European defence sector. And here the challenge is for small countries and small companies to learn to think big, really big. We must have in mind a systemic overhaul of Europe’s defence. This is why I will appoint a fully-fledged Defence Commissioner in the next Commission. This is Europe’s strategic responsibility.
To conclude, Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the beginning of this decade, many illusions have been shattered in Europe. The illusion that peace was achieved once and for all. The illusion that prosperity might matter more to Putin than his delusional dreams of empire. The illusion that Europe was doing enough on security – be it economically or militarily. Today, we cannot afford any more illusions. The second half of this decade will be high-risk. The war against Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East have put geopolitics in flux. Tensions are also running high in the Far East. We are facing climate change with for example the desertification of whole regions. We Europeans must be on guard. We must refocus our attention on the security dimension of everything we do. We must think about our Union as intrinsically a security project. And Central Europe has a crucial role to play. This is why I am so happy to be here at GLOBSEC today because you must be at the heart of European security. You must be at the heart of our Union’s future. I count on you.
Acceptance speech by President von der Leyen for the Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award at the GLOBSEC Award Ceremony 2024
Prague, 30 August 2024
Dear friends,
It is a great privilege for me to be here to receive the Czech and Slovak Transatlantic Award. Six years ago, you, Mr President, dear Petr, received this same award. And today, I am deeply honoured to join your ranks, together with my dear friend, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. I am also deeply honoured to follow in the steps of great personalities who have been awarded this prize, like the late Madelaine Albright. She was a proud daughter of this beautiful city and country. She was chased out, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets. She found her new home on the other side of the Atlantic. She became the first woman who served as US Secretary of State. America gave her freedom, and she dedicated her entire life to restoring and protecting freedom in her beloved Europe.
I think her story is symbolic for the story of our transatlantic partnership. It is built on personal connections and family ties, but it thrives because of the values we share. This is also my personal experience of the transatlantic bond. I remember very well June 2014 – at that time, I was Defence Minister in Germany – when the Iraqi city of Mosul fell to the so-called Islamic State, when terror shook our societies. We teamed up with our friends in the United States and Canada. Together, we pledged that we would do everything in our power to defeat this threat to our common way of life. And that is what we did over years – regardless of the political colours in power on both sides of the Atlantic. I remember early 2017, the Trump administration had just taken office. Jim Mattis, whom I had never met before, was now the Secretary of Defence in the Pentagon. And my friends, I can still hear his voice, when he called me in those first days and said: ‘Madam, I want you to know we are good friends and allies.’ I cannot tell you how touched I was.
And I remember ten years later, on the day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when Joe Biden called me in Brussels for a VTC, it took us no time to agree on our common response to Putin’s war. Time and again, Europe and America have stood at each other’s side, and on the right side of history. And this must not change, whoever will sit in the Oval Office as of January next year.
But to preserve our partnership, some things have to change. We do not live in the post-World War era anymore when Europe was on its knees after the Nazis wreaked havoc across our continent. Today’s Europe is standing on its feet. Therefore, it has to contribute more fully to transatlantic security and prosperity. This is in our mutual interest. On both sides of the Atlantic, we share an interest in Europe taking greater responsibility for its own security. We share an interest in securing raw materials, critical technologies and global trade routes. We share an interest in building an integrated transatlantic economy with resilient value chains that stretch out from both sides of the Atlantic. Europe has a strong stake in our transatlantic partnership, and we will make it even stronger.
This is why I thank all of you who are here today. I see this prize not only as a celebration of our transatlantic values but as an encouragement to keep believing in the transatlantic partnership, to make it fit for a new era. Together, we can keep the torch of freedom and friendship alive.
Long live Europe and the transatlantic partnership, and I thank you very much for this prestigious and impressive award.
Source – EU Commission