A problem-solution speech done well

So I went looking for some examples. Almost immediately I ran across one that fit my friend’s description. What surprised me, though, was that it was also a great example of structure and language, a model of how to write a perfectly good problem-solution speech even if you don’t use some of the stylistic add-ons so common in the United States.

The speech was given by José Manuel Durão Barroso, president of the European Commission, in Prague on March 2.

The European Commission is “the executive branch of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union’s treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union,” according to Wikipedia.org. The speech’s goal was to celebrate and highlight the successes in the five years since the EC membership was enlarged.