Political narrative, collective EU security and the State of the Union

ABSTRACT The EU has always struggled to convince its member states for more security powers. The European Commission Presidents often use the State of the Union address to build a narrative on the need for the European Union to become a security player. The State of the Union address was established with the Lisbon Treaty and serves to highlight the priorities of the Commission. This makes it one of the most important addresses in political terms. Such a speech draws attention to the function of narratives and their role in shaping human communication which can be used by politicians to transfer ideologies, beliefs and information to a wider audience [Shenhav, S. R. (2005). Concise narratives: A structural analysis of political discourse. Discourse Studies, 7 (3), 315–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605052189; Della Sala, V. (2018). Narrating Europe: The EU’s ontological security dilemma. European Security, 27(3), 266–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2018.1497978]. This paper will evaluate issues of security as tackled in the State of the Union addresses from the first delivered by Jose Manuel Barroso in 2010 to the last speech delivered by Ursula von der Leyen in 2021. This will serve to evaluate the evolving narrative concerning European Security as the Commission attempted to build a stronger case for transforming the EU into a security player.