EU’s war of words
Tetchy Juncker delivers speech in French ... after claiming English is ‘losing its importance in Europe’
JEAN-Claude Juncker has taken another swipe at Britain by claiming the English language is already ‘losing its importance in Europe’.
Amid laughter from an audience in Florence, the European Commission chief switched from speaking English to French and said the UK’s sway on the Continent was being eroded ‘slowly but surely’.
His comments were intended to be light-hearted, but came after tensions rose between the UK and Brussels after his aides leaked negative accounts of a Downing Street dinner, prompting Theresa May to accuse ‘the bureaucrats of Brussels’ of trying to influence the general election.
Mr Juncker insisted the EU will orchestrate a Brexit strategy aimed at punishing the UK for ‘abandoning’ the bloc.
But in a rare admission he also acknowledged that the EU’s failure to face up to its mistakes had contributed to the Leave vote.
Before addressing a conference of EU officials in Italy yesterday, he said he had ‘agitated between using English or French’.
‘I will express myself in French because slowly but surely English is losing importance in Europe,’ he quipped. ‘It is quite important for me to be understood.’
Mr Juncker, who is from Luxembourg, speaks several languages and often uses English at international events.
He used his ‘state of the union’ speech in Florence to suggest the UK will be worse off after Brexit, which he again described as a ‘tragedy’. He said: ‘We shouldn’t underestimate
‘Might be scared of the truth’
the importance of the decision by the British people. It is no small event.
‘We will negotiate with our British friends in full transparency but there should be no doubt whatsoever that it is not the EU that is abandoning the UK – it is the UK that is abandoning the EU. This is the difference that will be felt over the next few years.’
He also used the keynote speech to accuse Brussels bureaucrats of turning a blind eye to their failures.
‘Europe does have some weaknesses, which can partly explain the outcome of the referendum in the UK,’ he said. ‘There are some weaknesses we sometimes overlook. We might be scared of the truth sometimes, the truth that might emerge on the horizon.’
Pointing to impending problems for the EU, he added: ‘We are losing our economic power and clout.’
British ministers yesterday continued their counter-attack against Brussels in the wake of leaks that suggested Mr Juncker launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister during their dinner at No 10.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: ‘It would certainly be easier if commission officials kept their views to themselves and not further complicate what is already going to be a tough negotiation.’
Brexit Secretary David Davis accused EU officials of ‘deliberately misleading briefing’, which he described as an attempt by the European Commission to ‘bully the British people’.