BRUSSELS, March 9 (Reuters) - The EU must be prepared to project its power more ‌assertively as it can no longer ‌rely on a "rules-based" system against threats and must determine if ​its institutions and systems help or hinder its credibility, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.

"We will always defend and ‌uphold the rules-based ⁠system that we helped to build with our allies, but we can ⁠no longer rely on it as the only way to defend our interests or assume its ​rules will ​shelter us from ​the complex threats that ‌we face," von der Leyen said at a conference for EU ambassadors.

"We urgently need to reflect on whether our doctrine, our institutions and our decision making – all designed in a postwar ‌world of stability and ​multilateralism – have kept pace with ​the speed ​of change around us. Whether the ‌system that we built – with ​all of ​its well-intentioned attempts at consensus and compromise – is more a help or a hindrance ​to our ‌credibility as a geopolitical actor," she added.

(Reporting ​by Lili Bayer; Writing by Makini Brice; ​Editing by Bart Meijer)