Britain will soon regret Brexit, insists Juncker
Ridicule for EU big shot as he threatens UK
JEAN-CLAUDE Juncker last night faced ridicule after he claimed Britain will ‘soon regret’ Brexit – while revealing plans for a massive Brussels power grab and even more migration.
The European Commission president insisted ‘the wind is back in Europe’s sails’ as he set out his dream for a European super-state with an army, an intelligence agency, the ability to set taxes, and a President of Europe at its helm.
Mr Juncker said the Eu should be expanded to include more states in the Balkans and increase the number of countries that use the euro and are part of the bloc’s Schengen border-free travel area.
despite the migration crisis creating havoc across the continent, he said it was a ‘necessity’ to open up more routes for people wanting to move to Europe.
But critics immediately dismissed his blueprint for a ‘united States of Europe’, with former ukip leader Nigel Farage proclaiming: ‘Thank God we’re leaving!’
Mr Juncker, a former prime minister of luxembourg, said the Eu had been left ‘battered and bruised’ by Britain’s decision to leave.
But instead of taking the opportunity to rethink plans for further integration between member states, he insisted they should ‘finish the job’.
‘I hear those who say we should not rock the boat now that things have started to get better, but now is not the time to err on the side of caution,’ he said in his hour-long state of the union address to MEPs in Strasbourg. ‘We now have a window of opportunity but it will not stay open for ever. let us make the most of the momentum, catch the wind in our sails.
‘As Mark Twain wrote, years from now we will be more disappointed by the things we did not do, than by the ones we did.
‘Now is the time to build a more united, stronger and more democratic Europe for 2025.’
When Britain leaves the Eu in March 2019, Mr Juncker said it would be a ‘very sad and tragic moment in our history… but we will move on’.
‘We will always regret this, and I think that you will regret it as well, soon,’ he said. ‘Brexit isn’t everything, it’s not the future of everything, it’s not the be-all and end-all.’
Mr Farage said Mr Juncker’s address was ‘the most open, honest and truly worrying’ speech he had heard in his time as an MEP.
‘The message is very clear,’ he added. ‘Brexit has happened, full steam ahead.’
In response to Mr Juncker’s speech, Mr Farage told the Parliament: ‘All I can say is: “Thank God we’re leaving.” You have learned nothing from Brexit.’ Tory MEP david Campbell Bannerman denounced Mr Juncker’s plan as ‘federalism, red in tooth and claw’, while colleague Syed Kamall said the Eu was sailing ‘towards a united States of Europe’.
Mr Juncker said Eu leaders should gather in the Romanian city of Sibiu on March 30, 2019, the day after Brexit, to prepare for a new future without Britain.
‘Europe only moves forward when it is bold,’ he said. ‘The single market, Schengen and the single currency were all written off as pipe dreams before they happened. And yet these three ambitious projects are now a reality.
‘We must complete the job now that the sun is shining and whilst it still is. Because when the next clouds appear on the horizon – and they will – it will be too late.’
Mr Juncker said welcoming more migrants to Europe was a ‘necessity’ for ‘a continent getting older’, adding: ‘Europe is not a fortress and must never become one.’
Former Tory leader Iain duncan Smith denounced Mr Juncker’s speech as ‘bar-room utterances’.
donald Trump will ‘stand with the UK through Brexit’, the new US ambassador has pledged. Woody Johnson said: ‘Britain’s decision to leave the European union takes your country into new territory – but you are not heading there on your own.’
‘All I can say is thank God we’re leaving’