An independent Europe is emerging as the European Union strengthens its economic, technological and security capabilities, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her 2026 State of the Union address at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, 16 September. Among the most concrete proposals was a new European Security Council that would involve non-EU partners including Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada and Ukraine.
Von der Leyen opened her annual address by quoting Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, describing Europe as living through both opportunities and growing risks. According to the Commission president, the EU has become stronger while the international environment around it has become more unstable.
“A stronger, independent Europe is now emerging.”
In the official text of the speech, von der Leyen pointed to reduced dependence on Russian fossil fuels, increased defence spending, industrial policy and support for Ukraine as examples of this shift.
“In the cold fragility of today’s world, only Europe can provide true sovereignty to Europeans.”
What von der Leyen means by an independent Europe
The idea of an independent Europe ran through several parts of the speech rather than being limited to defence.
Von der Leyen argued that Europe needs to reduce strategic dependencies in areas including energy, critical raw materials, artificial intelligence and defence. She said European defence spending has increased by almost 80 percent over the past five years and called for further joint investments in capabilities including air and missile defence, strategic transport, cyber security and space.
On energy, she argued that reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels is also a question of European autonomy. The Commission wants to expand domestically produced clean energy and increase electrification, while the EU is also seeking to diversify supplies of critical raw materials currently concentrated in China.
The same logic applies to artificial intelligence. Von der Leyen said Europe needs its own technological capabilities, particularly where national security is concerned, and called for a significant expansion of European computing capacity.
A European Security Council including Norway
One of the main institutional proposals was the creation of a European Security Council, intended to provide a leaders’ format focused on security across the continent.
Von der Leyen explicitly said that countries outside the EU should participate.
“For a long time, we have discussed a leaders’ format focused on the security of our continent. With partners like Canada, Norway, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and others involved.”
She added that the Commission would now present ideas to turn the concept into a reality. The proposal therefore remains at an early stage, with its composition, powers and relationship with existing European and transatlantic institutions still to be defined.
The inclusion of Norway would deepen an already extensive security relationship between Oslo and the EU. Norway is not an EU member but is a member of NATO and participates in several areas of European cooperation through the European Economic Area and other agreements.
Norway welcomes closer European security cooperation
Norwegian Foreign Minister (Utenriksministeren) Espen Barth Eide welcomed the proposal and the prospect of Norway being involved, according to TV 2.
“We are living in the most serious security policy situation since the Second World War. It is therefore positive that the EU is strengthening cooperation on European security.”
Eide said Norway welcomes the EU’s intention to involve Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada and Iceland more closely. At the same time, he stressed that NATO remains the framework for collective defence and that closer cooperation between NATO and the EU will remain essential.
The distinction is also present in von der Leyen’s proposal. Her speech did not present the new council as an alternative to NATO. Instead, she repeatedly described stronger European defence structures as complementary to the alliance.
Europe could also get its own Article 4 mechanism
Von der Leyen also proposed what she called an Emergency Security Protocol, designed as a European mechanism alongside NATO’s Article 4.
Under the proposal, one EU member state could trigger a meeting of all member states when it faces a serious security threat below the threshold of armed aggression. The countries would then coordinate a response, seek to prevent escalation and limit the consequences of the incident.
The Commission president linked the proposal to threats including cyberattacks, sabotage, drone incursions and attacks against critical infrastructure.
“I believe it is time for Europe’s own Article 4, or an Emergency Security Protocol.”
The Commission has not yet presented the detailed legal or institutional framework for either the protocol or the European Security Council.
Together, the proposals indicate that von der Leyen wants the EU to develop greater capacity to act independently while keeping security cooperation closely connected to NATO and to European countries outside the Union. For Norway and other Nordic countries, the next steps will determine how far this emerging European security architecture extends beyond formal EU membership.
