We must make decisions about how to finance Ukraine during this summit, von der Leyen emphasizes in an appearance in the EU Parliament ahead of the EU summit that begins in Brussels on Thursday.
At the same time, she keeps a clean slate about the importance of Europe being able to continue to act independently.
Ultimately, it is about our freedom: to decide our own laws for ourselves, to act as we want, to pursue our interests and our partnerships. Freedom to vote for whomever we want, without pressure or floods of manipulated information. Freedom to choose diversity and democracy, von der Leyen speaks with clear reference to the criticism directed at the EU from the US in recent times.
