A week ahead of the State of the Union speech by its President, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission unveiled, on Wednesday 8 September, its second annual Strategic Foresight Report, which lists the areas that should enable the European Union to strengthen its strategic autonomy while remaining open to the world and to achieve its long-term political priorities, such as climate neutrality by 2050 (see EUROPE 12785/3).
The Vice-President in charge of the dossier at the EU institution, Maroš Šefčovič, said the Commission had focused this year on “the geopolitical dimension of resilience”. “We asked ourselves what it means to take the EU’s open strategic autonomy and global leadership to the next level in an increasingly-multipolar global order”, he explained.
He listed ten strategic areas for action: - ensuring sustainable and resilient health and food systems; - securing decarbonised and affordable energy; - strengthening capacity in data management, artificial intelligence and cutting edge technologies; - securing and diversifying supply of critical raw materials; - ensuring first-mover global position in standard-setting; - building a resilience and future-proof economics and financial systems; - developing and retaining skills and talent matching EU ambitions; - strengthening security and defence capacities and access to space; - working with global partners to promote peace, security and prosperity for all; - strengthening the resilience of institutions.
On 18 and 19 November, the Commission will organise the ESPAS conference to discuss the issues raised in the 2021 Foresight Report.
By the end of September, it will finalise the public consultation on ‘resilience dashboards’.
See the 2021 Strategic Foresight Report: https://bit.ly/3yYABey
For more information on ‘resilience dashboards’: https://bit.ly/3yVaPIe (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)