European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said that Britain’s decision to leave the EU reflected problems within Great Britain as well as European issues.
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He ordered the draft to be revised in what allies and officials said showed the European Union executive wanted to be seen to listen to voters three months after Britons opted to leave the bloc.
Mr Juncker said the proposal could save European countries up to €100billion (£85 billion).
” Europe needs to toughen up”, Juncker stated.
Senior diplomat Jykri Katainen said leaders of the soon-to-be 27-member bloc were forging ahead with the ambitious defence plan despite growing opposition from eastern states who fear a diminished North Atlantic Treaty Organisation could pave the way for a Russian invasion. The focus will be on pooling military equipment and promoting defence research.
“You think I’d still be in office if I was having cognac for breakfast?”
Belgian van Rompuy, president of the EC from 2009 until 2012, told the BBC that the June 23 referendum on European Union membership was “a historical mistake and one of the rare examples of where a country decides to vote against its own interests”.
Juncker also suggested that the European Union move toward a common military force, something the British have long opposed on the grounds of conflicting with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
“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.
Europe “must be better equipped, trained and organised to contribute decisively to such collective efforts, as well as to act autonomously if and when necessary”, this document demands.
He too stressed that the military force should “complement NATO”. Brussels reserves the right to intervene not only in the war-torn regions in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but anywhere in the world.
The proposals may not yet apply to the United Kingdom, as it may have left the European Union by the end of the decade.
The drive to prevent the break-up of the European Union by preparing for global wars is pushed above all by Berlin.
Britain and the EU are unlikely to get started in earnest on the “political amputation” of Brexit until the end of next year, after federal elections in Germany, Herman Van Rompuy, a former president of the European council has said. The new boundary will be determined by the extent of policy consensus between the key players, namely France and Germany, he added. In the medium term, a “permanent civil-military operational headquarters” is required, it states, with a “civil-military planning and command and control capability”.
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“That image of a strong Europe, that is tarnished a lot after Brexit”. But the Commission is promoting connected cars as part of a broader move to have more devices connected to the internet and insists that connections still need to become faster to support that trend.
