In her State of the Union address on 15 September 2021, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen outlined flagship initiatives which the Commission plans to undertake in the coming year. These include continuing vaccination efforts in Europe and speeding up vaccination globally, as well as strengthening pandemic preparedness; working with global partners to close the climate finance gap; leading the digital transformation that will create jobs and drive competitiveness, while ensuring technical excellence and security of supply; ensuring fairer working conditions and better healthcare, and creating more opportunities for Europe’s youth to benefit from the European social market economy; stepping up cooperation on security and defence, and deepening the EU’s partnership with its closest allies; and defending European values and freedoms, and protecting the rule of law. President von der Leyen noted that the EU is recovering rapidly from the economic crisis created by the pandemic, with 19 countries expected to be at pre-pandemic levels this year and the rest the following year. Moreover, growth in the euro area has outpaced that in both the US and China in the last quarter. At the same time, the President emphasised the need for caution. She highlighted the important role of NextGenerationEU as the driver of both short-term recovery and long-term prosperity, as well as the need to address structural issues in the economy and to invest in 5G, fibre and digital skills. President von der Leyen also announced that the Commission will relaunch the discussion on the Economic Governance Review in the coming weeks to build a consensus on the way forward well in time for 2023.