“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.
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With Europe wracked by fears over extremism, the refugee emergency and economic woes, Juncker told legislators that European Union integration can not be for individual member states to manage alone and insisted that “too often national interests are brought to the fore”.
The speech was dominated by Britain’s shock June vote to quit the European Union depriving it of a major, nuclear-armed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military power but one which had also been hostile to any suggestion the bloc should have its own army.
Brexit will be the elephant in the room but the meeting is unlikely to shed much light on it.
However, Britain controls when divorce proceedings will begin – and it’s in no hurry.
But the Juncker address offered few clues to the negotiations with London that the European Union insists can not start until Prime Minister Theresa May formally starts a two-year countdown to British departure. In its current form it uses 21 billion euros of European Union cash and guarantees to attract private investments for 15 times that amount.
The spokesman added: “Clearly, the country voted for Brexit for a number of reasons”. The Polish government has launched its own investigation into the death.
“This is a negotiation”.
British Conservative lawmaker Syed Kamall in contrast accused Juncker of indulging in the kind of “supranationalism” that turned so many Britons against the bloc.
“Any negotiation will be a hard negotiation”, he said. No other country has full access to European Union markets without accepting free movement of European Union citizens across its borders.
London accounts for 69 per cent, or $928 billion, of the off-exchange euro-denominated interest rate derivatives market and President Francois Hollande of France has said clearing in euro-denominated contracts should be moved to the Eurozone.
When her pro-Brexit trade minister, Liam Fox, was reported as suggesting Britain should leave the EU’s customs union, Mrs May’s office at 10 Downing Street said no decision had yet been made.
Leaders must also compensate for Britain’s departure from the bloc.
UKIP MEP Mike Hookem said the money “would not be used to effectively tackle the migration crisis because it is not being used to stop huge numbers of people crossing the Mediterranean”.
The project, WIFI4EU (Wi-Fi for you), aims to put free Wi-Fi hotspots open to all EU citizens in parks, squares, libraries and other public buildings.
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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.
