Von der Leyen Calls EU 'Most Precarious' Ever, Previews Mandatory Gamer Age Checks and New Canada Pact

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, September 16, that the EU is now at "the most precarious" point in its history, according to The Guardian's live coverage of her address.

This was von der Leyen's seventh State of the Union speech, according to Politico Europe, and it came with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seated as guest of honor. Von der Leyen used the moment to announce what Politico described as a new EU-Canada "Alliance for the Future," a deeper partnership she previewed to reporters ahead of the speech. Carney is scheduled to deliver his own address to the Parliament on Thursday, September 17, according to Euronews.

Water, Wildfires, and a Dead Pilot

Von der Leyen leaned hard into climate and resource security. She warned that "European pipes lose almost one litre in every four litres, mostly through leakage," calling it a waste, per The Guardian. She announced a new European Water initiative aimed at closing an "insurance gap" for farmers facing water scarcity, according to Euronews.

She also unveiled a forthcoming European Heatwave Plan, telling lawmakers "there can be no repeat of this summer," a reference to the wildfires and record heat that hit the continent, which scientists say is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, according to Euronews.

Von der Leyen paid tribute to Rune Kyndal, a 46-year-old Danish pilot who died in Greece in July during an emergency firefighting mission. His family attended the speech, and the chamber gave him a standing ovation, according to The Guardian.

Red Tape and a €17 Billion Number

On the economic side, von der Leyen touted the Commission's ongoing simplification push. She said 12 "omnibus" proposals are cutting administrative burden across the bloc by roughly €17 billion a year, according to Euronews. That's a real number for a bureaucracy that critics, including European Policy Centre analyst Eric Maurice, say operates with too little transparency. Maurice told the Associated Press, in reporting carried by the Troy Record, The Independent, CTV News and India Today, that von der Leyen risks using the speech "to placate political groups" or "to raise the Commission President's profile and extend the Commission's political and institutional domain."

The EU Kids Act: Age Checks for Gamers

The most consequential item wasn't fully unveiled Wednesday but was previewed ahead of a formal rollout scheduled for Thursday, September 17, by von der Leyen and EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen, according to Breitbart, citing Euronews and Euractiv reporting.

The EU Kids Act would require age verification not just for social media and video-sharing platforms but for online video games and AI chatbots, a scope expansion pushed by Spain and the Netherlands, according to Euronews reporting cited by Breitbart. Internal documents reviewed by Euractiv reportedly show users signing up for new game accounts would need to verify their age through an EU tool or another government-authorized system, and that tech companies would be required to pay the European Commission to cover enforcement costs.

There's a legitimate case for this. Parents across the political spectrum want fewer 12-year-olds doomscrolling on apps built to be addictive, and the EU isn't inventing the idea. Australia and the United Kingdom have already moved on age verification. Sony locked chat features behind mandatory age checks for UK and Irish PlayStation users earlier this year to comply with British law, requiring users to submit a phone number, a facial scan, or ID.

But the concern raised by critics, and noted even by outlets sympathetic to child-safety rules, is that mandatory age verification tends to become the on-ramp to broader digital ID systems. In the UK, politicians warned that Keir Starmer's earlier age-verification push would eventually require some form of national digital ID, a concept British voters have consistently rejected. And handing biometric or ID data to a verification system carries real risk. PlayStation's 2011 breach exposed personal data belonging to roughly 77 million users worldwide. The underlying data-security question remains fair and unresolved. No breach or misuse of the proposed EU verification tool has occurred, because the tool doesn't exist yet.

The Political Backdrop

Von der Leyen delivered the speech to a Parliament where her own coalition is fraying. Politico Europe reported that her center-right allies are increasingly willing to work with the far right, while center-left lawmakers are demanding she draw a clear line against that cooperation. She also proposed loosening EU asylum rules "in times of crisis" and warned that the EU-China trade deficit has hit a "tipping point," per Politico.

Last year's speech warned of "civilizational erasure" rhetoric from the Trump administration over migration policy and declared "Europe is in a fight." This year's speech, by von der Leyen's own framing, treats that fight as having gotten worse, not better.

The EU Kids Act's formal text is expected Thursday. Whether member states adopt a common verification tool, or whether companies push back on funding the Commission's enforcement costs, remains an open question the bloc will have to answer in the coming months.