From the Centre for European Reform, this is the CER podcast.

It is a critical moment.

If we do not act with urgency, we would then severely undermine the liberal order.

Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it.

The wind is back in Europe's sales.

We have now a window of opportunity, but it will not stay open forever.

Hello and welcome to the CER's podcast.

My name is Camino Mordera Martinez.

I'm a senior research fellow based in Brussels and the CR's resident Spanish staff.

In this episode, we are going to look back at yesterday's State of the European Union speech.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen followed a tradition

established by Jose Manuel Barroso in 2010 and laid down her vision for the next 12 months

before the European Parliament. Her address was typically long and covered many topics

from health to digitalisation to LGBTQ rights to the Arctic.

But her speech revolved around what she and her team consider their biggest achievement so far,

and that is Europe's response to the coronavirus pandemic in the form of the recovery plan.

She also touched upon a number of topics like Brexit, migration, or the Union's response

to Belarus civil unrest.

So to reflect on all this, I'm joined today by our director, Charles Grant, who is in London.

Hello to you, Charles.

Hi, Camino.

And also by our chief economist, Christian Odenhall, who is in Berlin.

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