In his address, Mr Juncker urged the European Union to stick together after the shock Brexit vote and said Britain should get on with triggering Article 50, which commences the formal two-year countdown to the UK’s departure.
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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”.
He suggested that with the unprecedented decision, made in June, of the United Kingdom to exit the European Union bloc, the remaining organization must “be stronger” to try and counteract further nationalist voices from calling for the dismantling of Brussels powers.
Juncker stressed a need to do away with old divisions, and appeared to reached out to eastern European Union states that have refused to accept refugee quotes, saying that solidarity on refugees “must be voluntary”.
Juncker also proposed a European military headquarters, efforts to “work towards a common military force” in coordination with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the creation of a European defense fund to stimulate research.
“From an economic point of view, bringing together our military resources could be clearly justified”.
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.
He proposed doubling the size of his signature investment plan to 630 billion euros (US$708 billion), and announced measures to help young people hit by the eurozone debt crisis.
He added that the EU would work to defend people’s right to privacy, saying: “Europeans do not like drones overhead recording their every move, or companies stockpiling their every mouse click”.
“The consequences for Europe of this conflict are immediate but where [is] the Union, where are the member states, in the negotiations to try to solve this conflict?”
In the wake of the Brexit vote, European Union countries including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia called for his resignation, but Mr Juncker denounced this as a destabilisation campaign. “And we are getting smaller”, Juncker said, adding that only standing together, however hard that is, can fix the problem.
“We want to construct”.
“We need to ensure that the new Code (proposal) provides technologically-inclusive incentives, allowing our members to deliver a further increase in broadband investment”, ETNO Chairman Steven Tas said. “Populism creates problems, and we have to be aware of that and protect ourselves against it”.
Austria, meanwhile, will hold a re-run of its presidential election on October 2.
The migrant crisis and repeated terror attacks in leading countries like France and Germany are fueling far-right parties who also want an exit out of the EU.
The coming year sees Dutch, French and German elections, and anti-EU groups are riding high in polls.
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With the British vote to leave having shaken the EU, Mr Juncker proposed a series of measures created to restore confidence that Europe could deliver real prosperity and security, not the ongoing austerity and uncontrolled migration of recent years.
