Juncker stresses unity in the face of populism
THE president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, sought on Wednesday to rally support for the EU, saying that the bloc — battered by the UK Brexit referendum — was not about to break up despite its existential crisis.
In setting out the commission’s plans for the first time since the UK voted to exit the EU on June 23, Juncker highlighted the British referendum as a warning that the EU faced a battle for survival against nationalism in Europe.
“The EU doesn’t have enough union,” Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “There are splits out there and often fragmentation exists .... That is leaving scope for galloping populism,” he said.
But he underlined that he believed the world’s biggest trade bloc was still an important force. “The EU as such is not at risk,” he said.
Proof of that, Juncker said, was the success of a new European investment fund that the former Luxembourg premier proposed to double to €630bn by 2022 to help with a sharp decline in spending since the global financial crisis, helping projects from airports to broadband networks.
“Our European investment fund will provide a total of at least €500bn of investment by 2020, and will work to reach €630bn by 2022,” he said. “If member states contribute we can get there even faster.”
Juncker also wanted to extend the fund to the private sector in Africa to help curb emigration to Europe, starting with a pot of €44m, which could be doubled later.
An Africa fund is part of Juncker’s efforts to stress a more positive agenda, particularly over the migration crisis that has deeply divided the EU. He had veiled criticism of eastern European countries unwilling to take in refugees from North Africa and the Middle East. “Solidarity must come from the heart. It cannot be forced,” he said.
But his address offered few clues to the negotiations with London that the EU insists cannot begin until Prime Minister Theresa May formally sets off a two-year countdown to British departure. Juncker urged that it be done quickly.
A summit of 27 EU leaders in Bratislava on Friday is unlikely to shed much light on the issue.
Instead, Juncker warned that the remaining EU governments should narrow their differences on addressing many problems facing their economies and societies, although he had no plans for a “United States of Europe”. Aides say he believes the divisions are as great as he has known them in three decades at the heart of EU politics.
“What are we instilling in terms of values in our children? Is this a union that has forgotten its past, has no vision for the future? Our children deserve better,” Juncker said, speaking of his father, who fought in the Second World War.
With Germany and France both facing major elections in the coming year, significant changes in the union are unlikely, but EU officials are concerned that left-right political tensions over fiscal policy in the eurozone or divisions over taking in refugees will jeopardise the cohesion of the bloc.
Juncker urged states to complete the setting up of a European Border and Coast Guard, a project driven by 2015’s chaotic arrival of more than 1-million migrants and refugees.
He proposed new cooperation among EU armies and pushed for an acceleration of capital markets union.
Claiming success in fostering investment by the application of seed capital and guarantees from the EU and national governments, the commission has put the European Fund for Strategic Investment at the heart of its economic policy.
Set up in 2015 to run for three years until 2018 with a target of mobilising €315bn of investment, the current target is based on €21bn of EU money being leveraged 15 times by other investors. However, as the EU’s current seven-year budget programme ends in 2020, the total target will rise to €500bn for five years and the commission will call on member states to add to their contributions.
Brussels says the fund could also serve to bolster internet connectivity across the bloc.
“We propose to equip every European city with wireless internet,” Juncker said.
The EU doesn’t have enough union. There are splits out there and often fragmentation exists