In view of the forthcoming departure of the United Kingdom and the continent's gradual loss of influence, Europe needs to remain united now more than ever, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, told the heads of the EU delegations on Tuesday 29 August.
He said that it was not a time to retreat into national categories, it was time for European unity. Without unity, we will no longer count, and without unity we will be unable to influence international developments, Juncker said.
This declaration comes two weeks before the President of the European institution is to give his annual speech on the State of the Union, at the European Parliament on Wednesday 13 September. In this exercise, which was initiated by his predecessor, Jose Manuel Barroso, he unfailingly stresses the importance of unity to continue the European project and set out new directions for work in the coming months, sometimes together with new announcements.
In 2016, for instance, Juncker announced the plan to double the duration and firepower of the investment plan that bears his name, the launch of the external investment fund for Africa and the creation of the European Solidarity Corps (see EUROPE 11624).
In preparation, Juncker will host the first seminar of the College of Commissioners after the summer break at the Château du Lac at Genval, near Brussels, on Thursday and Friday. The day before, he is due to hold talks with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, over a working lunch in Berlin.
Addressing the ambassadors of the EU, the former Luxembourg Prime Minister referred to the Commission's White Paper listing five scenarios for the future of a Union of 27 up to 2025 (see EUROPE 11736). His State of the Union speech will provide him with the opportunity to sketch out a sixth scenario, that of a political union which goes far beyond the vision of a Europe reduced to nothing more than a marketplace.
"I firmly believe that there will be a sixth scenario and that this will be the one we propose. The reason we have not proposed it is that if we had, it would have been nipped in the bud", he said on Monday.
Juncker reiterated a number of unpalatable truths that call for modesty when redefining the EU's action. The European continent is the smallest and although its economy is not losing speed, it is losing significance, as EU GDP will account for less than 20% of global wealth in a few years' time. Demographically, Europeans will represent just 4% or 5% of the global population by the end of the century. "These are Europe's weaknesses and we will not be able to do anything about these other than to say that the 27 of us are stronger together than we are separately", Juncker stressed. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)