Mr Juncker will try and fail to force his federalist agenda on all of the EU’s members, so Britain should step in with an alternative proposal: let the core European Union countries pursue their superstate dream, but let the rest of us trade freely in a larger, non-federal zone.
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“From an economic point of view, bringing together our military resources could be clearly justified”. The Luxembourg-hailing politician added that a lack of cooperation on military resources was costing billions to European Union countries.
However, following Juncker’s speech on Wednesday, EU officials stressed that a joint EU military force would not be the same thing as an EU army.
Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party which led the push for Brexit, criticised the focus on “military Europe” and said that “having listened to you, I am pleased we voted to leave”.
Mr Juncker said the European Union would also create a legal framework to promote the expansion of high-speed internet and efforts to protect the personal online data of citizens across the bloc. On behalf of the European Parliament, we’ve got Guy Verhofstadt.
Juncker also acknowledged that there is now a strong mood of resentfulness against the powers of Brussels in several member states.
Nevertheless, the European Union is indeed facing an “existential threat”, Juncker warned, generated not by Brexit, but by the major splits that emerged during the economic and the refugees crises between the East and West member states, as well as between South and North.
But the difficulties of keeping Europe united were underscored on the eve of Juncker’s speech when Luxembourg’s foreign minister said Hungary should be suspended from the European Union for treating refugees like “animals”.
Federalist and chief negotiator of Brexit talks for the Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt said Europe must reinvent itself, and called for more integration.
“We want to construct”.
“Europe has to be better explained”, Juncker said.
“There are splits out there and often fragmentation where we need further union – that is leaving space for galloping populism”, he added, in a speech that mixed German, French and English.
“We can’t accept that because populism doesn’t solve problems”.
The plan will add weight to accusations from across the Atlantic that European Union measures in recent years to protect competition and privacy and crack down on illegal state aid are targeting the US tech giants unfairly.
The migrant crisis and repeated terror attacks in leading countries like France and Germany are fueling far-right parties who also want an exit out of the EU. It’s candidate, Norbert Hofer, is now leading in the polls, and already highly critical of the EU.
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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 globalization, terrorism and mass migrant flows.
