As people join the Flamingo Collective, we make sure they know that this is a political community. This has nothing to do with political parties.. What it does mean is holding space to reflect deeply and act on what is happening politically in the world and in Europe. It means looking beyond the surface level to the root causes of problems and the patterns that repeat through history. Being political also means taking a stand when it matters, taking sides.
By Laura Sullivan, 11 September 2025
Our focus is Europe, because that’s what we know best. But we also hold space to be challenged and to learn from friends far beyond—because one of Europe’s weaknesses is precisely that it doesn’t listen enough.
Our focus is also on a Europe that is much bigger than the European Union, though the latter is an important part of the story of the continent.
A new chapter of that story was told yesterday in a one-hour ‘State of the European Union’ speech by Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
At times fascinating, at times heartbreaking, it was an emotional rollercoaster to listen to that speech, to really hear what she was saying, the words she was using and how she framed things – what she left in and out. The story she wove reflects the mood board of the EU’s institutions and most powerful people right now, their values and how they intend to practice them. It largely reflects the great distance between the mood of human populations on the street and those in the institutions. Let’s take three parts of that story.
On not-so-never-again and genocide in Gaza. The European Union is built on the idea of ‘never again’ and so it is very hard to watch how the EU is precisely enabling the ‘again’ by providing Israel with arms, an ongoing trade deal and a lot of financial support. Against this, it was incredible to hear how far the dial has moved on Gaza in just one year. Von der Leyen announced a partial suspension of trade ties with Israel—potentially far more powerful than phasing out support measures. As Israel’s number one trading partner, the EU holds real leverage to stop genocide. That gives reason for hope.
And yet there are problems. One is with Germany that is still holding back action. The other is Von der Leyen’s framing of genocide in Gaza as an ad hoc humanitarian crisis. Her fatalistic tone erases the reality: this is not a sudden crisis, but a long-running state-sponsored effort to wipe people out—an effort the EU could and should help stop. When the Israeli government decided to start bombing humans in Gaza and after the Defence Minister Katz threatened to ‘raze Gaza to the ground’, her statements focused on humanitarian aid, and even that took a long time to get going. One MEP noted that young people in Europe are getting politicised through the growing action on Gaza. This will be the moment when they decide to support the EU, or not. It’s not doing a very credible job on this yet.
On Climate Change and the Green and Just Transition. Ursula Von der Leyen said that she was still committed to climate action. And yet she left out the part about agreeing to buy 750 billion worth of American fossil fuels, as part of the trade tariffs package. She also left out the fact that the EU’s Deregulation agenda is tearing apart all of the efforts in her last mandate to tackle climate. Two years back, Von der Leyen got applause when she told a room full of climate activists in the European Parliament that the age of fossil fuel driven growth was over. The next day her own Commissioner colleague reiterated that point adding ‘as long as we remain in the world’s top three economies’. The contradiction couldn’t be sharper. There is still an incredible disconnect between what EU leaders are saying and doing against the backdrop of a planet on fire, and the masses of people already experiencing climate chaos.
On self-awareness and awareness. There were moments when we blushed (with shame). It might have been this: ‘When I speak to the Global South..these are rapidly evolving markets and the jury is still out on who will dominate the markets’ or this ‘Our European food is the best in the world’ (move over, Trump!) or on migration, this ‘We decide who comes’ or this: ‘The world is looking to Europe’. Possibly the problem is that the EU is looking so much into itself that it can’t see anyone else. It does not see that everyone is connected, that our well-being and survival depend on that of others and vice versa. The 70 minute speech was also interesting for what was left out. There were some references to authoritarian states misbehaving (with an image flashing up that clearly alluded to the amazing people power moment of 25,000 people on the streets of Budapest defying Orban’s ban on Gay Pride). But there was no mention of human rights, racism, intersectional justice or genocide.
All in all, this State of the Union address ignores the question of power and the reality that neoliberal thinking, patriarchal leadership, neo-colonialism and racism still dominate the EU’s decision-making rooms. Von der Leyen closed the speech by acknowledging the firefighters dealing with this summer’s horrific fires. While this recognition is and will remain important, it highlights a deeper problem: the focus is on the symptoms, not the root causes – the fires and floods, and not what is causing them.
We are capable of so much more.