European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday issued a rallying cry for unity after Brexit, saying the EU is not in danger of splitting up but must fight “galloping populism”. As one European Union source puts it: “Britain has voted to leave; the remaining members of the European Union must focus on the best way forward for them as 27, not for Britain”.
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European Union leaders are scheduled to meet in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia on Friday without British Prime Minister Theresa May. “We can no longer depend on the singular power of individual member states”.
“We have to stop this war according to which all success is national, and all failure is European”, he said.
Juncker said he insists the European Union have a greater role in organizing each member’s military to provide greater security to the region.
Post-Brexit, the 27 remaining states in the European Union need to stick together and assume increased responsibility for their defense, Juncker stressed. “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.
Juncker’s proposals, made during his annual State of the European Union address, got a mixed reception at the European Parliament. “People in Europe want to know if the political elites are capable of restoring control over events and processes which overwhelm, disorientate, and sometimes terrify them”.
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. Immigration was a major reason that led a majority of Britons to vote for a Brexit – exit from the EU.
The lack of cooperation in defence costs Europe between €25bn and €100bn a year, he added, calling for joint purchasing of military equipment and vehicles.
Juncker’s highly centralising commission has come under heavy fire from Eurosceptic parties – in founding states such as France and the Netherlands in the west and governments in newer eastern members such as Hungary and Poland – for pushing too hard for integration at the expense of national freedoms.
Twenty-two of the EU’s 28-member states are also members of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance, headquartered in Brussels, but Juncker insisted the bloc’s military ambitions would not undercut this key relationship.
For now, Britain remains a member of the bloc, though an increasingly detached one, as the other 27 countries start to move on. “There can be no a la carte access to the single market”, he said.
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Juncker also urged May to get on with the formal process of Brexit by triggering Article 50 of the European Union treaty.
