Leading the CoR plenary debate on Europe's strategic autonomy was our ECR President, Marshal Władysław Ortyl, who gave an impassioned speech about how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global supply chain leading to a shortage of critical products in Europe, demonstrating that "borders hinder the free movement of people, goods and services". 

In this regard, the Marshal highlighted key areas, ranging from economy to security, where he sees room to advance open strategic autonomy to remedy the ills of Europe's economy as a result of the crisis: raw materials; energy; supply chains; smart specialisation strategies; digitisation; building a circular economy, and investing in social systems.

"The EU's dependence on external supplies of raw materials such as gas and oil is most worrying", expressed President Ortyl attributing Europe's dependence to the limiting of extraction and processing of natural resources in the EU because of reasons such as "scarcity, environmental protection, high labour costs and urbanisation".

Evoking the importance of demographics in debate, Marshal Ortyl called for more investment in social systems to encourage young people to start families: "Europe will be safe and competitive only if our economy is driven by young & talented Europeans".

Contributing to the debate was ECR Vice-President Anna Magyar, who also referred to the EU's problem of strategic autonomy in the area of demography in addition to raw materials and energy supply: "EU institutions need to concentrate more on solving practical and real problems that are affecting everyday lives of citizens".