BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a major state of the union speech on Wednesday addressing the challenges facing the world’s biggest trading bloc and laying out her vision for tackling them.

The commission has enthusiastically billed her speech — modeled on the annual State of the Union addresses to Congress by U.S. presidents — as “a milestone event for European democracy.”

During her address, to be delivered to lawmakers during a session that could run for around three hours at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen is expected to announce new spending targets and policies for the years ahead. Few details have been released about what she might say.

Fabian Zuleeg, Chief Executive at the European Policy Centre think-tank,

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