The 61-year-old former Luxembourgian prime minister called for ties to “remain on a friendly basis”, but warned that London could not expect a la carte access to the EU’s single market if it brings back immigration controls. That plan, fortunately, didn’t pan out but the European Union has not given up on its 5G rollout plan, it’ll just take a bit longer now with 5G expected to be available across all of Europe by 2025.
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However, he said that this should be “complementary with NATO” in reference to concerns that the European Union will be treading on the toes of the US-led military alliance, which is also based in Brussels.
“We must have a European HQ and. work towards a common military force”, said Juncker, referring to plans that have long faced British hostility and which will come up at Friday’s summit.
France and Germany, the bloc’s two most influential member states, recently submitted a proposal for greater European Union defense coordination, ranging from creation of a logistics hub for pooling military transport to an European Union military headquarters. Filmmakers and start-up investors fear it will hurt European innovation and help powerful media groups.
Obama added: “I’ll be honest, sometimes Europe has been complacent about its own defense”.
With Germany and France both facing major elections in the coming year, major changes in the Union are unlikely, but EU officials are concerned that left-right political tensions over fiscal policy in the euro zone or divisions over taking in refugees will jeopardise the cohesion of the bloc. But NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg cautioned earlier this month that “the thing we have to avoid is duplication”.
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.
“Never before have I seen national governments so weakened by the forces of populism and paralysed by the risk of defeat in the next elections”, said the former Luxembourg premier, a 30-year veteran of European Union politics, referring to eurosceptics across Europe drawing inspiration from the British rejection of the EU.
“We propose today to equip every European city with wireless internet”, Juncker said, revealing the kind of project he hopes can help build some love for the EU among ordinary voters. “We don’t destroy, we don’t want to undermine, we want to construct, we want a better Europe”. “We need credible, hard power ourselves”.
Juncker said greater defense cooperation also makes economic sense for European Union member nations, since it would reduce as much as 100 billion euros’ worth of wasteful duplication of spending yearly.
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The scheme is meant to attract private investments from an initial input of 3.35 billion euros from the EU budget and the European Development Fund, a financial tool funded by EU governments.
