The European Union (EU) should set up a headquarters to coordinate efforts towards creating a common military force, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday.
Advertisement
Instead, Juncker will warn that the remaining European Union governments should narrow their differences on addressing many problems facing their economies and societies.
Juncker’s speech also touched on the UK’s decision to leave the bloc encouraging the European Union to stick together after the shock Brexit vote on 23 June.
He specifically said the European Union must do more in the defense field, and no longer be overly dependent on the U.S. He said it should start with the creation of an European Union military headquarters and work toward a common military force. And the Brexit negotiations may only further complicate the situation as remaining nations must compensate for the loss of the EU’s highest-spending military power, which could easily reduce their overall defense capacity by 25 percent if new proposals aren’t implemented.
Jean-Claude Juncker said the lack of a “permanent structure” resulted in money being wasted on missions.
Juncker won polite applause for his speech from MEPs, but was savaged by Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party which led the push for Brexit.
Google said the proposal goes backwards.
“Indeed it was the usual recipe – more Europe”.
The EU agreed to distribute among member states some of the migrants who arrived in Greece and Italy a year ago, but fewer than 5,000 people have so far been relocated and around 58,000 are still stuck in Greece. Slovakia and others have refused to take part.
“Reinforcing the Significant Market Power (SMP) access regime now in place, which is based on regulatory obligations on dominant operators, is an important element to achieve our goal of a Connected Society”, Alto chairman Ronan Lupton said.
The president of the European Commission today called for steps bringing an EU-controlled army closer.
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”. “We will be very strict in terms of who can cross our borders and this is something that we are looking to implement by the end of the year”, he said in his annual policy speech.
Eastern member states have been arguing against too much EU integration and the specter of a federal European superstate, and the issue is expected to be the main battleground for months, even years, to come as the EU deals with the fallout of Britain’s departure.
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.
Cracking down on YouTube is a key demand of some of the world’s biggest music artists who said in a letter to Juncker last June that YouTube was stealing value from streaming services, such as Spotify.
Advertisement
The proposals aim to make European Union laws fit for objective in a digital environment.
