EU election priorities dominate State of the Union conference

euronews (in English)

Experts from around the world gathered in Florence for the 14th edition of the State of the Union conference to discuss the priorities of the next European term.

Transcript

00:00 With only a few days left until the EU's next elections,

00:05 debating the most pressing issues Europe is facing has never been as crucial as it is now.

00:11 Economic policies along with both digital and green transitions

00:14 topped the agenda of the 14th edition of the State of the Union Conference.

00:19 Speakers from around the world flocked to Florence for the two-day event

00:22 to reflect on what has been achieved so far

00:25 and what Europe should focus on in the next political term.

00:28 Many of these panels are dealing with the technical issues involved

00:32 but what unites them is the sense that there must be some vision for Europe's future.

00:37 A vision that can bring Europeans together

00:40 because if Europeans are not united, not able to generate the kind of energy necessary

00:45 to tackle these challenges, then no technical solution is going to be enough.

00:49 Among the lessons learned, experts including former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta

00:54 warned that the call to competitiveness is something Europe cannot ignore.

00:58 As part of that effort, continuing on the path of the Green Deal

01:01 to make the EU economy more sustainable can be both an opportunity and a challenge.

01:06 We should be less worried because the Green Deal is much more than a Green Deal

01:10 and maybe some of the details might change because some politicians might prefer some aspects of the Green Deal

01:16 but I think the project will continue in the same direction that we started.

01:20 The need for European defence and the future of enlargement are some of the questions

01:24 being triggered by the new geopolitical order caused by the war in Ukraine.

01:29 But above all, more than anything, these elections are about defending European values and democracies

01:34 and the fight against misinformation.

01:37 Espionage, disinformation, AI abuse and so on.

01:42 They are targeting our trust and they seek to decrease the trust of people in democratic system.

01:51 It's dangerous.

01:53 So I hope we will not have some dramatically bad lesson to be learned from these elections.

02:01 But even if not, even if they will be more or less okay,

02:06 with only some portion of manipulation, it's inevitable.

02:12 We will have to do more in the future because trust is the most valuable value we have.

02:19 Whether or not some of the proposals discussed here will be implemented

02:23 greatly depends on what's going to happen after June 9th.

02:27 Giorgia Orlandi for EUROnews in Florence.

02:30 (whooshing)

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