Gozi: Europe doesn't need another debate, it needs reforms
The right question, the wrong answer on how to get there. That, in substance, is the European Democratic Party's reading of the State of the Union address delivered by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 September 2026.
"Von der Leyen asked the right question: either Europe becomes a geopolitical power, or it remains the other powers' playground," said Sandro Gozi, Renew Europe MEP and Secretary General of the European Democratic Party (EDP). "But answering it takes decisions, not more speeches. Europe lacks neither money nor talent nor ideas: what it lacks is the courage to reform itself."
From big thinking to big building
For the EDP, the gap between the diagnosis and the instruments is the heart of the matter. "We need to move from big thinking to big building," Gozi argued. "You cannot build tomorrow's Europe with yesterday's rules: what we need is qualified majority voting, a targeted treaty reform and the flexibility to let those who are ready move ahead now, without being held hostage by vetoes."
It is a long-standing EDP position: unanimity in foreign policy, defence and taxation has become the main brake on European action, and differentiated integration — allowing a group of willing member states to advance without waiting for the slowest — is the way to break the deadlock without breaking the Union.
Canada, and a wider security architecture
The party's assessment of the foreign policy and defence section of the address was markedly more positive. Von der Leyen opened the door to Canada becoming the Union's first associate member and called for the creation of a European security council bringing in Ottawa and other close partners.
"The opening towards Canada as the Union's first associate member, and towards a European security council with Ottawa and other partners, is welcome — in line with President Emmanuel Macron's initiative," Gozi said. "That is how European common defence is built and how Europe grows stronger: by widening its alliances and bringing together those who want to move forward."
Builders, not thinkers
The sharpest disagreement came over the announcement of a congress of thinkers to mark the seventieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in March 2027.
"Europe does not need another debate about its future, it needs the reforms to prepare it," Gozi concluded. "Why redo the Conference on the Future of Europe instead of delivering on the reforms citizens have already called for? We don't need more thinkers, we need a convention of builders: let 25 March 2027 be the date by which the reform of the Union is done, treaties included. Our support will go to action, not announcements."
The reference is to the Conference on the Future of Europe, whose citizens' panels in 2022 produced a substantial set of institutional recommendations — from ending unanimity to strengthening the Parliament's powers — that have largely remained unimplemented. For the EDP, the seventieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome should be the deadline for delivering them, not the occasion for reopening the discussion.
