At the same time, he also said never before has he seen such little common ground between Member States, so few areas where they agree to work together.
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But the Juncker address was expected to offer few clues to the negotiations with London that the European Union insists can not start until Prime Minister Theresa May formally sets starts a two-year countdown to British departure.
His comments come after Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn called for Hungary to be suspended or from the European Union due to Budapest’s treatment of refugees, as well as question marks over the independence of its judiciary and the freedom of its press.
Ms Le Pen rebuked Europe’s top bureaucrat’s “faulty” speech claiming that he hadn’t “paid attention” to members of the EU.
European Union member states have so far refrained from paying into the Juncker plan and have only put forward national projects for eligibility. And many foreign companies operating in the United Kingdom have said losing access could force them to move people and operations out of the country.
To those who feared Brexit would be the beginning of the end of the European Union, he said the EU respected and regretted the decision of the British people.
“The European Union is now not in top condition”. Washington is keen to see Europe do more in its own neighbourhood and USA presidential candidate Donald Trump has questioned whether North Atlantic Treaty Organisation should support allies not seen to be spending enough on defence.
Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Commission president, said in a major speech Wednesday that the 28-nation organization “should be stronger” militarily.
In a summit invitation letter published late Tuesday, EU President Donald Tusk said it would be a “fatal error” for the EU to ignore the lessons of Brexit and urged the bloc to be less “politically correct” on migration.
EU leaders are trying to steady the ship after Britain’s shock June 23 vote to become the first country to leave the union, already buffeted by a ideal storm of globalisation, terrorism and mass migrant flows.
“Europe is not social enough, we have to make that clear”. Slovakia, which now holds the EU’s rotating presidency, and others have refused to take part.
This “isn’t too bad” for the UK but would hurt German vehicle companies and French wine makers, because they would face tariffs to export into the UK, Mr Farage said. It must come from the heart.
To finance riskier infrastructure or energy projects in Europe and help create new jobs, Juncker proposed doubling the capacity and duration of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), launched in 2015 with the aim of generating investments of at least 315 billion euros by 2018, of which 116 billion has already been raised.
“We would be happy if the request for Brexit could happen as quickly as possible so we could take the specific steps which need to happen”, he said.
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He added that the EU would work to defend people’s right to privacy, saying: “Europeans do not like drones overhead recording their every move, or companies stockpiling their every mouse click”.
