Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Junckeris a Luxembourgish politician who has been President of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, since 2014. Previously Juncker was Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013, as well as Minister for Finances from 1989 to 2009. He was the longest-serving head of any national government in the EU, and one of the longest-serving democratically elected leaders in the world, by the time he left office, his tenure encompassing the height of the European...
NationalityLuxembourger
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth9 December 1954
Jean-Claude Juncker quotes about
I'm always quite amazed that people in Europe become unnerved when two institutions or two people have different views.
I completely agree with Helmut Kohl. I am not an advocate of the "United States of Europe," nor am I an integration fanatic.
It is always said that Europe is a project of the elite. That's incorrect.
One can't allow blind loyalty to a friendship to lead one away from acting in the public interest. If Martin [Schulz] were to propose something that was totally absurd, our friendship would not prevent me from doing the opposite.
Europe is a democracy and differences of opinion are part of it.
In politics, there are different categories of friendship. My friendship with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, for example .
[Boris]Johnson, [Nigel] Farage, they are retro-nationalists, not patriots. Patriots don't abandon ship when the going gets tough. They stay on board.
We no longer have the pact from 1997; it was radically amended in 2005 and the Commission is applying this Stability Pact with wisdom and rationality.
I would have thought that they [Boris Johnson and Nigel Farag] would have had a plan,instead of developing a plan they are leaving the boat.
Without the Turkey agreement, tens of thousands of refugees would still be stuck in Greece. The Commission presented proposals for securing Europe's external borders early on, but they languished in the Council for months. As you can see, the Commission isn't asleep. Oftentimes it has to wake up the others.
There is a distorted perception of what goes on in Brussels. No one reports on the Commission taking a hundred initiatives from its predecessor off the table in order to shift competencies back to member state governments.
Stories are invented: Juncker wants to introduce the euro everywhere or immediately deepen the EU - although I publicly stated the opposite that same day.
My friendship with Martin [Schulz], by contrast, is completely different in that it goes far beyond politics.
Yesterday's shining heroes of Brexit have become the sorrowful heroes of today.