EU chief says Europe in ‘a fight for our future’

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>The European Union’s most powerful official has warned that Europe is battling against a series of threats posed by Russia&comma; new global trade challenges and even other major world powers and must stake a claim to its independence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a state of the union speech&comma; European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced new measures to help Ukraine fight off Russia’s full-scale invasion&comma; and she called for trade restrictions and sanctions on Israel over the war in Gaza&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She also defended the deal she reached with US President Donald Trump to limit the impact of his global tariff war&comma; despite agreeing to a 15&percnt; duty rate for most European exports to the United States&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Europe is in a fight&comma;” Ms von der Leyen told EU politicians in Strasbourg&comma; France&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A fight for our values and our democracies&period; A fight for our liberty and our ability to determine our destiny for ourselves&period; Make no mistake — this is a fight for our future&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Battle lines for a new world order based on power are being drawn right now&comma;” she said&comma; adding that the EU &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;must fight for its place in a world in which many major powers are either ambivalent or openly hostile to Europe”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This must be Europe’s independence moment&comma;” said the 66-year-old former German defence minister&comma; who has become a prominent figure at summits with leaders around the world&comma; despite her role as a political appointee who has not been elected to office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The commission is the EU’s executive arm&period; It proposes laws that impact the lives of around 450 million people across 27 countries&comma; and monitors whether those rules are respected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In recent years&comma; it has helped Europe to survive the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic&comma; break its dependency on Russian energy supplies and cope with a trade war launched by a traditional ally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Turning to Russia’s war on Ukraine&comma; now in its fourth year&comma; ms von der Leyen said that Russian President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of ending the war&comma; and that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;our response must be clear too”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We need more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiation table&period; We need more sanctions&comma;” she said&period; The commission and EU member countries are working on a new raft of sanctions targeting Russia’s energy revenues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Poland said on Wednesday that multiple Russian drones entered its territory over the course of several hours and were shot down with help from Nato allies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms von der Leyen condemned the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;reckless and unprecedented violation of Poland and Europe’s airspace”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Europe stands in full solidarity with Poland&comma;” she said&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Putin’s message is clear&comma; and our response must be clear&comma; too&period; We need more pressure on Russia to come to the negotiation table&period; We need more sanctions&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms von der Leyen also said that new ways to address Ukraine’s financial challenges must also come through the use of frozen Russian assets in Europe&period; Almost 200 billion euros worth of those assets are being held in a Belgian clearing house&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Interest earned on the assets – around 3&period;5 billion euros were generated last year – are already being used to help prop up Ukraine’s war-ravaged economy&period; Ms von der Leyen said that a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;reparations loan” for damage inflicted by Russia is being weighed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She also announced the creation of a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;drone alliance” with Ukraine – drones have become a decisive factor in the war – with six billion euros in funds for the effort&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To applause in the parliament&comma; the commission chief said that she wants to freeze some financial support to Israel&comma; and to impose trade restrictions and sanctions on the government over the war in Gaza&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Breaking with her traditionally very strong pro-Israeli government stance&comma; Ms von der Leyen said that the events in Gaza and the suffering of children and families &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;has shaken the conscience of the world”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war&period; For the sake of the children&comma; for the sake of humanity&period; This must stop&comma;” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She added that the commission will set up a new Palestinian donor group&comma; with a focus on Gaza’s future reconstruction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Addressing criticism of the tariff deal with Mr Trump&comma; Ms von der Leyen underlined that Europe depends on the United States as a major trading partner&comma; and that the position of European businesses was improved compared with other countries that got a worse deal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;millions of jobs” depend on that relationship&comma; adding&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;And as president of the commission&comma; I will never gamble with people’s jobs and livelihoods&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e0733604a19">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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