Reaction to Ursula von der Leyen's State of the union speech
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Mm. Next though, Ursula Von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, wrapped up her annual State of the European Union speech in Strasbourg a little while ago, the wide ranging address, set the agenda for the political year and touched on the multiple challenges that the bloc faces, including Russia's war in Ukraine, climate change, migration, trade with China and defence.
What were the headline announcements in Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech?
The President also confirmed plans to bring forward the Kids. act with strict restrictions on social media usage by children. Here's some of what she ha had to say about that.
What we are witnessing? is a great capture of our children. A capture of their attention, their focus, their minds. This is depriving children of their childhood. What our children need It's time time to grow into themselves, to grow up with others. to be confronted with all the emotions and choices that come with real life. They even need time to get bored. Because this is when they have to use their imagination. When they have to talk. This is when they have to talk, to agree, to disagree, to form an opinion, to change their opinion. But when a child has a smartphone, all of this is taken away.
That's Ursula von der Leyen there now. Suzanne Lynch, Bloomberg, Brussels bureau chief, is on the line. Morning, Suzanne.
How does the EU plan to restrict children’s use of social media?
Good morning, David.
I suppose the big news appears uh from her speech appears to be her suggestion that Canada could have associate membership of the EU. Was that expected and what does it mean?
I think very much so. This is the takeaway from this speech. We had been expecting uh some comments on Canada. The Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was in attendance and he tomorrow will give his own speech to the European Parliament. And we'd we'd been reporting that there were moves underway to deepen the relationship between Canada and the EU. But no one really expected Vanderleim to make this quite bold announcement today. She envisages now Canada Becoming the first ever associate member of the EU. Now of course we are going to have to see more details about this. What does she mean by this? What kind of form would this take? And also how are EU Member States going to react to this? This would ultimately be a decision for all countries.
But she has definitely set the cat among the pigeons with this uh announcement that we weren't really expecting in this speech today. So we'll be watching the fallout from that now over the The next twenty four hours or so.
Mr President, absolutely. Now we were expecting talk about tech and about uh children's access to to it, and she talked about the burden of proof now being on tech companies to prove they are safe.
Yes, I mean look the EU has been under pressure for a long time to introduce EU wide rules uh on social media, particularly children's access to social media. We've seen various countries take the lead on this. France, for example, obviously what we've seen in Australia. Um so this was her answer to this. Actually last year she kind of um touted this potential idea in her State of the Union speech back in twenty twenty five. So what What we have see today from this proposal, and she will um develop it more in the announcement tomorrow, but that they are looking to ban social media for children under thirteen and then restrict the use of this in some way for older children so that you know thirteen and fourteen year olds, for example, will be allowed to have accounts but with parental supervision and limited features.
Um there is also a big role, as you said, there to be played by social media companies and in particular um the EU is considering fines of up to six thousand six percent uh of annual sales on social media companies that don't comply. So um this had been, you know, in the offering for a while. Again, with everything in the EU, this would be proposed and it could be months, years before this makes its way through the process, but it is definitely a significant moment in terms of the EU's regulation of social media.
Now we know uh President von der Leyen is very interested in security and defence issues, and she spoke about the establishment of a European Security Council so Europe is more prepared against things like uh potential threats from Russia.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:21
2
What were the headline announcements in Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech?
0:21–1:28
3
How does the EU plan to restrict children’s use of social media?
1:28–4:16
4
Why did von der Leyen suggest Canada could become an EU associate member?
4:16–7:03
5
What are the proposed penalties for tech firms that ignore new EU rules?
7:03–9:27