With Europe increasingly divided by issues ranging from the migration crisis to terrorism, Juncker’s speech focused on security and the economy to find ways that European Union nations can work together.
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He said: “We should also move towards common military assets, in some cases owned by the EU”.
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.
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.
By November the Commission will propose a European traveler information system: “Each time someone enters the EU, the place, date and motivation of their travels will be registered”, so that “this new automatic system will say who is authorize to travel to the EU before they arrive in the EU”, Juncker said.
European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said: “We want to have very good, very close relation with the UK”.
Britain has always staunchly defended North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as the main military alliance and routinely blocked attempts to bolster European Union defense. This is particularly true of defense where France, in particular, has long sought to lead an European Union army that excludes American influence from Europe.
“Never before have I seen such little common ground between our member states, so few areas where they agree to work together”, Juncker said in his annual state of the union address. “As for the initiative announced by Juncker, it is an attempt to reinforce federalist Europe, and nowadays people in Europe don’t want it, so it is not a welcome initiative”, he said.
She said in Spain, where a similar law already exists that doesn’t allow publishers to waive the fee, Google news disappeared.
Juncker’s performance in front of 751 MEPs was meanwhile closely scrutinized amid speculation he has health concerns, despite strong denials by him and his spokespeople.
His speech sets the stage for Friday’s Bratislava summit where leaders will study a joint defence plan by France and Germany and other post-Brexit security plans.
Nigel Farage, a British politician who campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union, said: “It is clear that no lessons are going to be learned from Brexit”.
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European Council president Donald Tusk, who chaired the informal EU meeting in the Slovakian capital, added that Brexit negotiations must prioritise the interests of the 27 remaining countries of the bloc and “not the leaving country”.
