ADVERTISEMENT When Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual State of the European Union speech earlier this month, she set the tone from the minute she took the stage. "Europe must fight for its place in a world in which many major powers are either ambivalent or openly hostile to Europe," she told lawmakers in Strasbourg. "A world of imperial ambitions and imperial wars. A world in which dependencies are ruthlessly weaponised. And it is for all of these reasons that a new Europe must emerge."