The European Union’s chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, has warned divided Europeans that their Union is in an “existential crisis” after Britain’s vote to quit and said leaders must pull together to stop it unravelling.
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“Britain had already not many friends anymore”.
Substantive Brexit talks between the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union (EU) were unlikely to start before the end of 2017, a former European Council president has said.
He said “we should admit we have many unresolved problems”, and asked an existential question about the future, if any, for the European Union – “will Europe disappear from the global scene?”
“The facts are plain: The world is getting bigger”.
He said: “Any negotiation will be a hard negotiation, independent of the personalities”.
“This should be to complement North Atlantic Treaty Organisation”, he said, also outlining proposals for a common defence fund.
Juncker also urged states to complete the setting up of a European Border and Coast Guard, a project driven by last year’s chaotic arrival of over a million migrants and refugees, and proposed new cooperation among EU armies, as well as pushing for an acceleration of capital markets union.
“There is not a feeling of we have to punish, but on the other hand most leaders don’t want to encourage other exits”.
Mr Juncker acknowledged Europe’s citizens, particularly its young, were suffering from chronic unemployment and risked becoming the first generation to be worse off than its parents.
It represented a major concession to eastern European Union countries, led by Poland and Hungary, who have rebelled against attempts by Berlin and Brussels to impose refugee quotas on them.
He declared that accepting refugees “must be voluntary, it must come from the heart, it can not be imposed”.
As the heads of 27 European Union governments prepared to meet in the Slovakian capital today, Mr Juncker said it was time to stop the “endless disputes, quarrels and bickering” and focus on shaping a new post-Brexit future for the EU. “We can no longer depend on the singular power of individual member states”. He also announced a series of initiatives including a new European travel information system, a European defence fund to be set up by the end of the year, and more resources and better access to data for Europol, which supports national law enforcement.
Leaders of the remaining 27 European Union nations will focus on how to keep the group relevant to their citizens and address mounting problems that have divided their countries: migration, terrorism and globalization.
“People in Europe don’t want this petty envy between the various institutions”, he said at the assembly in Strasbourg, France.
In the lead up to the Brexit vote Farage was warning of the EU’s plans to move forward with the idea – which was tabled as far back as 2011.
The thorniest issue in divorce talks will likely be Britain’s desire to limit immigration from other European Union nations while retaining access to the bloc’s single market of 500 million people.
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At Prime Minister’s Questions, Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, told MPs the PM had so far been “unwilling or unable” to give assurances around access to the single market or whether the financial services sector could be exempt from any new controls on immigration.
