Our reaction to Ursula von der Leyen's State of the European Union address

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivered this morning the 2023 State of the European Union address.

DIGITALEUROPE’s Director General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl said:

“President Ursula von der Leyen hit all the right notes to fix Europe’s competitiveness problem.  A new law to cut bureaucracy and business reporting is a huge leap forward, as is the independent competitiveness check for each new law – now industry must be involved in that process. Putting an instrumental figure like Mario Draghi in charge of the competitiveness agenda shows they mean business.

One negative point is the pessimistic portrayal of AI. We support aligning governance at the international level, but we cannot forget that AI is the solution to the climate crisis, defending us in cyberspace, and is also a main driver for competitiveness.”