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| President Juncker gives State of the Union address to the EU Parliament |
President Jean-Claude Juncker in his speech (often interrupted by applause) argued for a more unified and politically-accountable European Union after Brexit, which would combine the presidencies of the Commission and the Council into one (universally elected?), complete the euro currency zone, and generally push the bloc to take “a democratic leap forward” in unison and at a single speed.
The European commission president said he would always be sorrowed by the UK’s decision to leave the EU. “This will be a very sad and tragic moment in our history, we will always regret this”, he said before responding to heckling from Nigel Farage, President Trump's "soul mate", by retorting: “I think you will regret this soon, I might say.”
Calling for a special summit in Romania on the 30 March 2019, the first day of an EU of 27 member states rather than 28, Juncker said he hoped the continent would “wake up” that day to a new more unified bloc.
Juncker’s annual address to the European parliament in Strasbourg was notably more upbeat about the future than his speech a year ago, with economic growth outstripping the US and unemployment at a nine-year low. The commission president and former prime minister of Luxembourg insisted the bloc should seize the moment to make widespread reforms. “As Mark Twain wrote, years from now we will be more disappointed by the things we did not do, than by the ones we did,” he said.
"On the 30 March 2019, we will be a union of 27 and I suggest we prepare very well for that date.”
Juncker added that the council should adopt qualified majority voting, rather than unanimity, on foreign policy issues and drive forward in European defence. “By 2025 we need a fully-fledged European defense union,” he said.
He also added the EU would establish a European cybersecurity agency. “Cyber-attacks know no borders and no one is immune,” he said.
Juncker told MEPs he intended to start trade talks with Australia and New Zealand, and promised to legislate to protect strategic interests from foreign purchases through industrial screening.
A joint statement from the French, German and Italian governments following the speech endorsed the move. The German minister for economic affairs, Brigitte Zypries, said: “We must avoid other states benefiting from our opening to advance their own industrial policy interests.”
Juncker added that the EU would respond to the “collapse of the ambitions in the US” on climate change by stepping into the vacuum and ensuring that Europe protected the world. “Let’s catch the wind in our sails”, he told MEPs.
However, he ruled out Turkey’s accession to the EU in the “foreseeable future”, and, in his strongest comments to date on the issue, he condemned the country’s slide into authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“Turkey has been moving away from the European Union in leaps and bounds,” Juncker told MEPs. “Journalists belong in editorial offices amid a heated debate, and not in prison. I appeal today to the powers that be in Turkey: let our journalists go, and not just our journalists.”
The EU President also proposed combining the Commission and Council presidencies — a move that would transform the EU leadership and consolidate authority in a single figure who would campaign for the post.
“Europe would function better if we were to merge the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council,” Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“Europe would be easier to understand if one captain was steering the ship.”
Mr. Juncker. who is originally from Luxembourg spoke at times in German, French and English. His speech was simultaneously and individually translated for members of the EU Parliament in their own local language
For the video with the complete speech of President Juncker click here.
EU-Digest
