1. State of the Union debate, dominated by the economic crisis

    published on Thursday, September 13, 2012 under European Union

    MEPs called on the European Commission to better address social issues. They also welcomed Commission President Barroso's vision on the need for a stronger EU but commenting that his federation proposals needed more ambition. Furthermore, the main groups called for a strong EU budget to deliver investments and growth.

    Commission President José-Manuel Barroso answered MEPs questions in a four-hour State of the Union debate, which focused almost exclusively on the effects of the economic crisis and on democracy. The first State of the Union debate was celebrated in September 2010. During his initial speech, he called on Europe's countries to confront the fact that they could not deal individually with the problems they faced, before outlining his vision for a deep economic union based on a political union in the form of a federation of nation states.

    MEPs pressed upon Mr Barroso the need to work on maintaining a social Europe, even in the face of the mounting crisis. Commission's president insisted that the reforms being undertaken were tough but necessary, conceding however that it was also "critical" to develop a "European social dimension". He also added that it was time to have truly transnational political parties which would make the case for the EU and called for these parties each to propose a candidate for the post of the next European Commission President.

    With regard to the EU budget, a broad consensus emerged among MEPs and Mr Barroso that this was the primary instrument for investment and growth. For this reason, MEPs insisted that sufficient resources be devoted to it, whereas Mr Barroso argued that the losers from a small EU budget would be the member states themselves.

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