Von der Leyen's moment to step up her game

"The state of the European Union? Could have been much worse," quipped Belgian Green MEP Philip Lamberts at a Strasbourg press briefing on Tuesday (14 September), a day before EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's speech on the union.

This will be a key message that von der Leyen will capitalise on in her second state-of-the-union speech: with the EU's leadership, Europe managed to vaccinate 70 percent of its adult population, introduced a Covid-19 pass that saved summer - at ...