The Brussels autumn normally kicks into gear by mid-September, when the president of the European Commission delivers the State of the European Union address (referred to as “SOTEU” by EU types) to the European Parliament. The speech, which tends to last about an hour, outlines policy priorities the EU executive aims to launch or complete in the coming months. But this is no normal Brussels autumn, since the EU is in the middle of a changing of the guard. In June, EU leaders decided that former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa…
