European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called for closer military cooperation at EU level.
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The planned reforms will go to the European Parliament and EU member states for approval.
But he underlined he believed the world’s biggest trade bloc was still an important force. “The EU as such is not at risk”. “That is why we will propose before the end of the year a European Defence Fund, to turbo boost research and innovation”, Juncker added.
Peter Lundgren, who belongs to the nationalist, anti-migrant Sweden Democrats party, said he does not want Sweden “to be forced into this type of military co-operation”.
Juncker also proposed a European military headquarters, efforts to “work towards a common military force” in coordination with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the creation of a European defense fund to stimulate research.
Juncker also wanted to extend the fund to the private sector in Africa to help curb emigration to Europe, starting with a pot of €44m that could also be doubled later on.
An arch-Euro Federalist, Juncker and many of his colleagues see the only plausible response to the existential crisis before them as a rejuvenation of the European project.
However, he was in a more conciliatory mood when it came to the issue of migrants, saying that the acceptance of a migrant quota “must be voluntary, it must come from the heart, it can not be imposed”. “There are too many areas where … national interests are brought to the fore”, said Juncker, a complaint not very different from President Obama’s preference for norm-setting worldwide institutions and rejecting American exceptionalism.
But the Juncker address offered few clues to the talks 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.
Two days before a brainstorming session of EU heads of state – minus Theresa May – in Bratislava, he sought above all to establish common ground among members, whom he said were more divided than he had seen in three decades of European politics, on a possible roadmap to reboot the bloc and make it more relevant to its citizens. His blustering “State of the Union” hint that Britain will struggle to access the EU single market should be taken with a healthy pinch of salt.
He also called for a new European Union border and coastguard force to start work quickly with 200 guards and 50 vehicles deployed in Bulgaria by October. “We must remain true to ourselves, to our values, our democracy, pluralistic, open and tolerant”. Is this a union that has forgotten its past, has forgotten its past?
But for all the concerns across the continent about a return to the intolerance of the 1930s, it is in the post-communist countries of the European Union that many fear the risk is greatest, as public frustration has undermined the ideals that these countries subscribed to upon joining the bloc.
Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker defended the idea of European integration, arguing “the Commission doesn’t intend to get rid of nation states”. Junker noted that greater defense cooperation would allow the European Union to make up for the loss and could be a relief for the economies of member nations, as it will end the “wasteful duplication” of defense spending yearly, which adds up to about 100 billion euros ($112bn).
Juncker told European lawmakers that the Commission wants to meet a first target of half a trillion euros by 2020.
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Brussels says the fund could also serve to bolster Internet connectivity across the bloc.
