Free Republic

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, has rejected calls to rethink the European Union’s open doors policy on migration. Dismissing suggestions that open borders led to the attacks, Mr Juncker said he believed “exactly the opposite” – that the attacks should be met with a stronger display of liberal values including open borders. Speaking at the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, Mr Juncker said that the perpetrators of Friday’s terrorist attack in Paris, which claimed more than 125 lives, should not be confused with genuine asylum seekers or refugees. Addressing an audience of journalists in both French and English,...

The European Union won’t change its strategy for dealing with refugees arriving from the Middle East and elsewhere in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks, the president of the bloc’s executive arm said Sunday. Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, also urged citizens and politicians not to confuse the Paris perpetrators with those seeking shelter from war and terror. People familiar with the matter have said that one of the terrorists who killed more than 100 people in coordinated attacks in the French capital Friday had entered the EU via Greece on a Syrian passport. That revelation...

Europe must improve its relationship with Russia, and should not let this be something decided by Washington, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday (8 October). […] Last week, US President Barack Obama accused Putin of acting out of a position of weakness to defend a crumbling, authoritarian ally in the Syrian leader. But Juncker signaled that Europe should take a different approach. “Russia must be treated decently,” he said. “We can’t let our relationship with Russia be dictated by Washington.” “I know from my conversations with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that he (does not accept) phrases like when...

The European Union has no border patrol. It’s one of the many ways in which the bloc lacks power, with its member countries jealously guarding their sovereign prerogative to enact their own laws about defense, police and coast guard. This vacuum of authority, and the failure of EU policy-makers to anticipate how events in faraway Libya or Syria might trigger the flood of refugees now swamping Europe, are some of the reasons the group of 28 European nations originally founded as a common market has failed to deal more firmly and effectively with what has mushroomed into a major humanitarian...

More than 1 million foreigners living in Britain will be banned from voting in the EU referendum, the Conservatives have announced, in a significant boost to Eurosceptic campaigners. David Cameron believes that the British people must decide the future of the nation's membership of the European Union in the first referendum for more than 40 years. The EU referendum bill, which will be announced this week after the Queen's Speech, will make clear that only British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens who are resident in the UK will be allowed to vote. It comes after Eurosceptic MPs confronted ministers over the...

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has advocated a combined EU military force, suggesting two major benefits: to improve the bloc’s standing on the world stage, and to send a message to Moscow. Juncker told the Welt am Sonntag Sunday paper that forming an EU army would be one of the best ways for the bloc to defend its values, as well as its borders. “An army like this would help us to better coordinate our foreign and defense policies, and to collectively take on Europe’s responsibilities in the world,” Juncker told the weekly. “Europe’s image has suffered dramatically and also...

EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has warned Greece against electing “extreme forces” into power and said he would prefer “known faces”—so far the strongest intervention of the EU top brass in the Greek campaign. “I think that the Greeks—who have a very difficult life—know very well what a wrong election result would mean for Greece and the eurozone,” Juncker said during an Austrian public TV debate with EUobserver and several other Brussels-based journalists. He steered clear of explicit political advice ahead of presidential elections in Greece next week, but said: “I wouldn’t like extreme forces to come to power.” The...

The head of the EU executive has delivered a scathing denunciation of David Cameron’s proposals to curb the rights of Europeans working in Britain, suggesting the British are stigmatising and “beating up” poorer east Europeans working legally in the UK. In his first comments on the prime minister’s initiative, Jean-Claude Juncker, the new president of the European commission, insisted the principle of free movement for labour in the EU meant there could be no discrimination against any EU countries.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has indicated he will try and get around member states’ veto powers over fiscal issues when he proposes new laws to clamp down on tax avoidance. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he said he may use a majority vote to get a forthcoming law on the automatic exchange of tax rulings (letters that give companies favorable tax conditions) passed. “I have not excluded that we change the rules using a qualified majority (of member states). I will leave the technical and legal aspects aside now, but it would affect aspects of administrative...

British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted Friday he would not pay a European Union bill for an additional €2.1 billion ($2.65 billion) contribution to the EU coffers at a time of increasing pressure at home for the country to leave the bloc. Thumping his fist in frustration, Cameron said “people should be in no doubt: as an important contributor to this organization, we are not suddenly going to get out our checkbook and write a check for €2 billion. It is not happening.” Cameron said asking Britain for a top-up of some 20 percent in its contributions on short notice...

The new European Commission has rejected the UK Government’s call to set up an independent body to scrutinize EU regulation and impact assessments before and after legislative proposals are adopted by the executive. Jean-Claude Juncker’s spokeswoman, Natasha Bertaud, told EurActiv that impact assessments would remain an internal matter before proposals were adopted. Frans Timmermans, Juncker’s choice for the new post of vice president in charge of better regulation, would ensure their quality, she said, after pointing to EU treaties governing Commission procedures. Currently, research on the impact of regulation is looked over by an internal Commission department. It is then...

After Jean-Claude Juncker’s election to the Commission Presidency in Strasbourg on Tuesday (15 July), excitement in Germany was felt across party lines. “(It’s) A good sign for Europe’s capacity to act,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel commented. “He will receive our total support,” said the country’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. For the first time, European citizens have had direct influence on the appointment of the EU top job—and they successfully asserted their choice, Steinmeier said optimistically. Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament, spoke of a “historic day for European Democracy”. …

Jean-Claude Juncker was elected European Commission President on Tuesday (15 July) after promising a more social Europe and paying tribute to the major integrationist politicians of the previous generation. The former Luxembourg PM, who has been on and around the EU stage for the last two decades, received 422 votes, easily surpassing the minimum 376 needed. Of the 729 MEPs that took part, 250 voted against him, 47 abstained and 10 votes were void. In a 50-minute speech before the ballot, the center-right politician said he wanted the European Commission to be “very political” and indicated he will try and...

Britain may come away empty-handed when European Union leaders carve up a package of top EU jobs next week, due to its fierce opposition to Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as the next European Commission president. Prime Minister David Cameron angered his peers in June by breaking with a tradition of taking decisions by consensus and forcing them to vote on whether Juncker should head the EU executive. Only Britain and Hungary voted “no”. Cameron publicly branded Juncker a “career insider of Brussels” and said his selection was a bad day for Europe. “After the mess at the last summit, many leaders...

Future EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday (8 July) promised that the economic affairs commissioner post will go to a Socialist, as part of a grand coalition-type bargain between the center-right and center-left. He made the commitment before MEPs from the center-left S&D group, whose support he needs to secure his appointment as head of the EU executive in a parliament vote next week. In his opening speech, he emphasized several issues dear to the Socialists’ hearts. He said he favors “equal pay for equal work”, a minimum wage across Europe—if not harmonized, then at least as a “recommendation”—as...

Jean-Claude Juncker, the next head of the European Commission, plans to implement a new digital strategy for the Continent. Europe, he believes, needs to become better equipped to defend itself from the US and Asia. […] Part of Juncker’s agenda will be to ensure that Europe challenges market abuse by American Internet giants with greater self-confidence. More important, however, will be for the EU to start cleaning up its own backyard. Juncker wants to take advantage of a broad consensus among European politicians to put enough muscle in the EU’s digital market that European companies can stand up to competition...

David Cameron has suffered "utter humiliation" over the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president, Ed Miliband has claimed. The Labour leader told MPs the PM's renegotiation strategy for the UK in Europe was now "in tatters".

UK prime minister David Cameron is to force EU leaders to vote on whether to appoint Jean-Claude Juncker to become the next president of the European Commission at a summit later this week. […] A vote would be unprecedented. Traditionally, EU leaders decide on the leader of the EU executive by consensus following a formal discussion. Cameron has argued that Juncker, a former prime minister of the Grand Duchy and veteran of more than twenty years of EU summitry, is too federalist and will be unable to reform the EU, in the wake of election results which saw a surge...

A group of banking chiefs, insurance bosses and entrepreneurs are urging Prime Minister David Cameron to protect businesses from European Union bureaucracy and plans to tax financial institutions. […] Cameron is anxious to show euro-skeptics in Britain, where anti-EU sentiment is high, that he is fighting for the country’s best interests. …

Before the European Parliament election last month, voters were told the poll would also determine the next Commission president. In a silent putsch against the electorate, Angela Merkel is now impeding the process. She fears a loss of power and Britain’s EU exit. […] … Merkel had hardly begun her speech last Friday before she got right to the point. With her hands set on the podium in front of her in the Regensburg University auditorium, she said: “I am engaging in all discussions in the spirit that Jean-Claude Juncker should become president of the European Commission.” German news agency...