Mairead Maguire Reports from Strasbourg

URSULA VON DER Leyen surprised MEPs today when she made what many regarded as her strongest statements on Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s bombardment in 2023.

But for some, her reluctance to call it genocide only added fuel to the fire.

The State of the Union speech serves as a check-in with the President of the European Commission and a kick-off to the political calendar.

This year, it was in the shadow of von der Leyen’s growing unpopularity with both the left and the right, with topics including Gaza, the Mercosur deal and climate action proving divisive.

Now she’s under pressure to show MEPs that she has been listening to their concerns.

“What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world,” she told MEPs in Strasbourg today.

“Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war.”

“For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity, this must stop,” she said to applause in the chamber.

Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty, who is part of von der Leyen’s European People’s Party, welcomed the change in tone, but said the EU can’t stop at words. 

“What we didn’t expect today was the change in mood and the shift in policy on Palestine,” Doherty told The Journal.

She said it’s important that Europe isn’t just a “bystander” to atrocities.

“We’ve always stood square behind Ukraine. There’s been a real delay to match those actions against Isrrael for the atrocities we’ve seen over the last number of years.”

Similarly, Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews described von der Leyen’s comments as “robust” and said he feels she has listened to MEPs who support the right to self-determination.

“It’s now down to implementation, which really falls to the member states,” he said.

Sean Kelly of Fine Gael welcomed her “calling out the man-made famine by Netanyahu”.

“I think some people mightn’t be too happy, but it was necessary. So hopefully there’ll be some follow-up action there now,” he told The Journal.

Others thought the speech was too little, too late.

Labour Party MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin described von der Leyen’s words on Gaza as “pathetic”.

A pillar of the EU’s escalated response to Israel is a partial suspension of their trade agreement.

To Ó Ríordáin, this is an “insult”.

“This is not a partial genocide. 20,000 Palestinian children are not partially dead.”

Sinn Féin MEP Kathleen Funchion was angered by von der Leyen’s unwillingness to label what’s happening in Gaza a genocide.

“She doesn’t seem to be willing to call out Netanyahu for the war criminal that he is,” she told The Journal. 

Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice president, last week broke rank and described Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in Palestine as a genocide.

The EU’s top officials had been avoiding the term.

Military spending and independence

“Putin’s war economy will not stop – even if the war does. That means Europe must be ready to take responsibility for its own security,” von der Leyen said today.

“Of course, NATO will always be essential. But only a strong and credible European defence posture will be able to guarantee our security.”

She pointed to a new initiative, agreed earlier this year, that will provide loans to countries to expand their military capabilities and suspend certain budget rules so that states can increase spending on defence.

Funchion questioned where the extra money would come from, if not from already under resourced areas.

“It’s always dressed up in a nice way around competitiveness and all of that, but what will that actually mean for us in reality and what will that mean for people in Ireland?”

“We’re a neutral country. We’re very proud of our neutrality, proud of our peacekeeping missions and out history in that area,” she said.

She said Ireland mustn’t “give in” to increased militarisation.

Funchion also said von der Leyen made little reference to families or workers, and any mention only amounted to “lip service”.

It was announced in the speech that the Commission will hold a housing summit to address the affordability crisis across the bloc, but little detail was given on how exactly that would help.

Separately, Von der Leyen said Europe is currently finalising a massive free trade deal with India.

Doherty said securing such a deal by the end of the year is “very ambitious, given that we’ve been talking about Mercosur for 20 years”, but welcomed it nonetheless.

Kelly welcomed the commitment to reduce energy dependence.

Von der Leyen said Europe should get rid of “dirty Russian fossil fuels” in order to bring down energy prices.

She also said the Commission will make ‘energy highways’ by removing bottlenecks in infrastructure around the bloc.