Brussels, 30/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister, reiterated his country's attachment to the “Community method” for taking European integration forward, and warned against a weakened European Commission that would be no more than the Council's “administrative secretariat”. He also underlined the fact that the prospective permanent president of the European Council as provided for in the Lisbon Treaty (a post for which Juncker's name has in fact been cited) should not act in competition or contradiction with the president of the Commission. “The Community method means that it is the European Commission that makes the proposals and Council and Parliament who decide together. A weaker Commission would mean a weaker European Union. The Commission cannot become an administrative secretariat for the European Council and national governments”, Mr Juncker says in a government declaration to the Luxembourg parliament on 29 July (the new government resulting from the 7 June 2009 election is a coalition between the Christian Socialists of the CSV and the Socialist Party, LSAP). The future permanent president of the European Council “must not vie with the president of the Commission or with the Commission as a whole. The two must work closely together, giving a face to European identity. They must defend Europe”, Mr Juncker said. The leader of the Luxembourg government also calls on large member states to act responsibly. “All 27 EU member states have the same rights and the same worth The large states of Europe, especially those which have a common border with Luxembourg, must understand that Europe has always been the result of the effort and moderated responsibility of the large member nations, on one hand, and of the conciliatory intelligence of the small states, on the other”, Mr Juncker went on. Europe is more than the sum total of the national interests of EU member states, he said by way of conclusion: “Two plus two can make five” on condition that the large and small member states work together on an equal footing to make European ambitions move forward. Mr Juncker is also Minister of the Treasury, a post that should allow him to remain president of the Eurogroup. (H.B./transl.jl)