Europe loses 27,000 industrial jobs a month, Manfred Weber told the European Parliament today. The EPP leader welcomed Ursula von der Leyen’s focus on AI, defence and child safety online, but said none of it works without unity. Only stronger joint action, he argued, can help Europe compete and defend itself.

Responding to Ms von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech, Manfred Weber (EPP/DEU) said Europe faced three shocks: the technological transformation driven by AI, a geopolitical challenge from Russia and China, and growing economic insecurity at home. Mr Weber leads the centre-right European People’s Party, the same political family as Ms von der Leyen.

“Every month we are losing 27,000 European industrial jobs,” he told Parliament. Protecting well-paid employment was essential to Europe’s social market economy, he said.

Mr Weber also welcomed the Commission’s proposals to protect young people online. “Children are not an advertisement target, they are our future,” he said. He also called for Europeans to be given the option to switch off social-media algorithms.

Europe cannot compete or defend alone

Mr Weber strongly supported Ms von der Leyen’s call for closer defence cooperation. European governments will spend €6.4tn on defence over the next decade, he said, but could still end up with 27 small national armies.

“The answer is unity,” he said, calling for a European defence pillar based on shared command structures, drones and satellites. Military cooperation should become so closely connected that future governments could not easily reverse it.

Trade agreements are the foundation of an alternative world order. A world order where Europe is not alone anymore. — Manfred Weber, EPP Group Leader

He applied the same argument to artificial intelligence. Individual member states could not match investment in the United States and China, he said. He therefore proposed a European AI fund within the new Competitiveness Fund.

However, Mr Weber challenged the Commission’s approach to some climate policies. Climate change was real, he said, but politicians should not tell Europeans struggling with fuel prices that higher costs were good for the environment. “We need innovation and not bans,” he added.

He concluded by welcoming stronger cooperation with Canada. “Trade agreements are more than new markets,” Mr Weber said. “They are the foundation of an alternative world order. A world order where Europe is not alone anymore.”