The head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker failed to mention the United States in the list of countries Brussels wants to conclude trade agreements with in the coming years, during his speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday."With the help of the European Parliament, we have just secured a trade agreement with Canada that will provisionally apply as of next week. We have a political agreement with Japan on a new economic partnership. By the end of the year, we have a good chance of doing the same with Mexico and South American countries. And today, we are proposing to open trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand," Juncker said.The European Commission's term of office runs until October 31, 2019.Before Donald Trump's election as the US President, Washington and Brussels were actively negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement. Trump canceled the TPP agreement with Asian countries as he dislikes multilateral trade agreements. Talks on TTIP have stalled, too.In his speech, Juncker insisted Europe wants deals that would be profitable for the bloc, not only the other side."Let me say once and for all: we are not naïve free traders. Europe must always defend its strategic interests," he said.Relations between long-term allies America and Europe have strained in the last few months. Recently Washington unilaterally imposed sanctions against the Russian energy sector over alleged meddling in US presidential elections by Moscow. The EU said the sanctions could backfire on European countries working with Russia."If a foreign, state-owned, company wants to purchase a European harbor, part of our energy infrastructure or a defense technology firm, this should only happen in transparency, with scrutiny and debate," Juncker said.China's COSCO Shipping already has a majority stake in Greece's biggest port, Piraeus, and a share of a terminal at Europe's largest port, Rotterdam.Germany, France, and Italy praised Juncker's speech on tighter oversight of foreign acquisitions of European property."Europe and of course Germany are and will remain open to investment from abroad. But we need to prevent other states from taking advantage of our openness in order to push through their industrial policy interests," German Economic Affairs Minister Brigitte Zypries said in a joint statement with France and Italy."The EU must be ready to stand up for its interests and protect itself - in particular when competition is not fair, and we are dealing with important national strategic interests," said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.</s>STRASBOURG (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made key proposals in his annual State of the European Union address to the European Parliament on Wednesday.

For more on the speech, see:

EURO ZONE INTEGRATION

A vice president of the European Commission to chair the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers and play the role of European Finance and Economy Minister, promoting reforms in states and deploying EU financial instruments to help states in recession or crisis. But he rejects French ideas of a separate euro zone budget and parliament, rather a “strong euro area budget line within the EU budget” and EU parliamentary scrutiny.

He backs that argument by calling for all EU states to adopt the euro and offering technical and financial help for countries that need it. With non-euro Britain leaving in 2019, only eight states accounting for 15 percent of EU GDP will be outside the euro zone. However, the likes of Poland and Sweden are wary politically of being drawn into the single currency.

Juncker also wants all states to join the European Banking Union, making bank supervision common across the bloc and more common standards in labor and social policies. He wants to set up a European Labour Authority and also wants governments to give up veto rights in areas such as corporate taxation and VAT harmonization efforts and a new financial transaction tax.

The Commission will propose in December ways to transform the euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) into a broader regional equivalent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the European Union as well as the creation of a double-hatted European Minister of Economy and Finance.

He also suggested making his successors as chief executives also the chairs of EU summits, fusing the roles of presidents of the European Commission and that of the European Council so as to make EU structures more comprehensible at home and abroad.

TURKEY AND THE BALKANS

Western Balkan states should have a realistic chance of joining the EU after 2019 but Turkey’s abuse of fundamental rights rules out it joining in the foreseeable future.

BREXIT

Britain’s departure is “tragic” and the British too will come to regret it but it should not prevent the rest of the Union forging ahead with integration in an ambitious way, in the knowledge that favorable conditions will not last for long.

Juncker made no policy statements on how Britain’s exit should be handled or on plans for a new relationship. He called for an EU summit in the once German-speaking Transylvanian city of Sibiu on March 30, 2019, the first day Britain will no longer be in the Union. Romania will be chairing EU meetings then. It should agree plans for the future ahead of bloc-wide elections to the European Parliament scheduled for two months later.

TRADE

The EU is to launch new, transparent free trade talks with Australia and New Zealand and aim to conclude those as well as ongoing negotiations with Japan, Mexico and South American nations by the end of Juncker’s mandate in late 2019.

The EU is taking advantage of a cooling of the United States on free trade. Addressing unease in Europe about such deals, Juncker stressed their power to create jobs and impose EU standards in areas such as the environment on trading partners. New deals will also be stripped of controversial elements such as special business tribunals to make them easier to ratify.

While being open, the EU will also introduce at Union level some of the powers which some governments have to review foreign investments in strategic assets — such as infrastructure or sensitive security or technology firms — and raise objections.

SECURITY

A new European Cybersecurity Agency to be set up. He also wants a new European intelligence unit to coordinate sharing of information on suspected militants and to give the new European Public Prosecutor powers to investigate terrorism offences. A European Defence Union, supported by NATO, to be ready by 2025.

MIGRATION

The EU is to propose ways to increase from 36 percent the rate of failed asylum seekers being deported back to their homelands. This is seen as essential to get member states to agree new rules on asylum to share out responsibilities and give more help to genuine refugees. Juncker wants states to make good on pledges of aid to Africa to promote growth and slow emigration.

Romania and Bulgaria should be brought into the Schengen passport-free zone without delay and Croatia as soon as possible — part of a strategy to push all EU member states into all the bloc’s structures, including the euro and banking union.

INDUSTRY

After blasting carmakers — many of them German — for deliberately misleading consumers on the emissions of diesel vehicles, Juncker proposed an Industrial Policy Strategy to help industries stay or become “world leaders in innovation, digitization and decarbonization”.

EASTERN EQUALITY

While pointedly demanding that EU governments respect EU law and court judgments — a barb aimed mainly at ex-communist states in the east like Poland and Hungary — Juncker stressed that the poorer east must not be treated as second class.

He proposed efforts to ensure children are vaccinated to the highest standards across the bloc, fair pay and treatment for workers backed by a new Labour Authority and stronger national powers to punish companies which offer lower quality products in the east under the same labels as better produce in the west. “Slovaks do not deserve less fish in their fish fingers.”</s>European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker delivered on September 13 his 2017 State of the Union Address, before the elected members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, presenting his priorities for the year ahead and outlining his vision for how the European Union could evolve by 2025. President Juncker appeared optimistic and positive, presenting a roadmap for a more united, stronger and more democratic Union.

In his speech, Juncker referred many times to Balkan area. Sometimes directly, saying that “Europe extends from Vigo to Varna. From Spain to Bulgaria. East to West: Europe must breathe with both lungs. Otherwise our continent will struggle for air” and other times in an other, hidden way: “In a Union of equals, there can be no second class workers. Workers should earn the same pay for the same work in the same place.”

To continue reading, please click here.</s>European Union's top official, Jean-Claude Juncker, says bloc is 'bouncing back' and confidence is returning.</s>Elisabeth is a reporter for Verdict, covering global news, economics and business. You can reach her at elisabeth.perlman@verdict.co.uk

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said that the “wind is back in Europe’s sails” on Wednesday.

Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in his annual State of the Union address, Juncker identified trade policy, security, and migration among a list of priorities ahead of the 2019 European elections.

However, he called on the union to seize a 12- to 18-month “window of opportunity” to push ahead with important policy initiatives.

What changes does Juncker want to introduce?

Juncker wants to see the start of EU free-trade talks with Australia and New Zealand, the screening of foreign investments across Europe, a deepening of euro-area integration and an expansion of the common euro currency.

Juncker made reference to Romania and Bulgaria, encouraging the two countries to join Europe’s borderless Schengen area but ruled out Turkey’s EU membership for the foreseeable future.

He also insisted on the need to combine the EU’s two most senior posts: the presidency of the European Commission and the presidency of the European Council because Europe “needs one captain at the helm.”

Meanwhile, he rejected French president Emmanuel Macron’s plans to set up a separate euro-area budget and urged the EU to do away with national vetoes in the areas of foreign policy and taxation by March 2019, when the UK leaves the bloc.

“Brexit,” he added, was “a tragic moment”, but “not the be all and end all.”

Manfred Weber, the leader of the centre-right European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament warned that British prime minister Theresa May’s current approach to Brexit “will not fly.”</s>European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker gave his annual State of the European Union address at the European Parliament on Wednesday morning presenting his vision for the future of the Union. Mr. Juncker ruled the prospect of an EU membership for Turkey in the foreseeable future in his speech. The main points of Juncekr’s speech were:

 A single president at the helm of the Commission and the Council, after having been elected in a pan-European campaign;

 * A European minister of economy and finance. A future Commissioner for economy and finance, ideally a Commission vice-president, could carry out this role as well as chairing the eurogroup;

 * Transnational lists for European elections. “I will try to convince the leader of my parliamentary group to try to follow this idea”.

 Trade/ eurozone/ enlargement:

 * Eurozone: Member states that are obliged to adopt the euro need support of a euro accession instrument, which will offer pre-accession assistance;

 * Need to strengthen European trade program. Opening trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand;

 * Calls for a new EU framework for investment screening;

 * All EU rules on worker mobility must be implemented fairly, simply and effectively “and for that, we need a new supervisory authority. We are going to set up a common labour market authority.”

 * Member states should agree as soon as possible on the European pillar of social rights;

 * Legal migration routes. Returning migrants with no right to stay in Europe;

 * High time to bring Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen area, as well as Croatia, when it meets the criteria;

 * Greater and credible accession prospects to countries of the Western Balkans. But not during Juncker’s mandate;

 * But there can be no EU membership for Turkey for some foreseeable future.</s>The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said on Wednesday that the “wind is back in Europe’s sails” as he issued a rallying call a year after the shock of the Brexit vote.



In his annual State of the Union speech, Juncker said the bloc had become more united following a series of crises and insisted economic momentum was picking up.

“All this leads me to believe the wind is back in Europe’s sails,” Juncker told the European parliament in Strasbourg.

“We have now a window of opportunity but it will not stay open forever. Let us make the most of the momentum, catch the wind in our sails.”

He said the EU should also capitalise on the momentum to strike new trade deals – a key issue as Britain looks to score its own after leaving the EU.

“Today, we are asking that we open up negotiations with Australia and with New Zealand,” Juncker said.

Juncker said he wanted EU leaders to meet in Romania the day after Britain leaves in 2019 to chart the bloc’s way forward as 27 member states.

He called for the leaders to meet in the city of Sibiu on 30 March 2019.

Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc the day before.

Juncker vowed that the EU “will move forward once Britain leaves”, saying: “Brexit is not everything. It’s not the future of Europe.”

To cheering British MEPs celebrating the country’s departure, Juncker said: “I think you will regret it quite soon.”

Juncker has less than two years left in office as head of the EU’s powerful executive arm to ensure that his legacy is not limited to the departure of one of the European Union’s largest member states.

His call for increased cooperation was however balanced with the need to heal a deepening split with eastern European countries that resist any move to further integration.

Brussels is increasingly in conflict with rightwing governments in Poland and Hungary over concerns about democracy, while Warsaw and Hungary oppose all further integration as an assault on national sovereignty.



The EU also remains deeply divided by the migration crisis, with a fresh spike in arrivals in Italy from Libya adding to rifts over how to handle the biggest influx of refugees and migrants since second world war.</s>Speaking at the annual state of the union address, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker issued a warning to Britian, which is currently slowly progressing with exit negotiations, saying that we will always regret this, and I think you will regret this too.</s>12.9.2017-At 9.00 on Wednesday 13 September 2017, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will deliver his speech in the European Parliament Plenary Chamber in Strasbourg. The event will be broadcast live on EbS and an enhanced livestream will also be available on the Commission’s Facebook page.

After a broad debate across our continent on the #FutureofEurope, with citizens, with the European Parliament, national Parliaments, local and regional authorities, and civil society at large, the President will take these ideas forward and give his personal views on the future of Europe as well as his priorities for the year to come.More: here</s>Beatrix von Storch said the European Commission president’s push for a ‘United States of Europe’ was “tragic” and needed to be stopped “immediately”. Mr Juncker delivered his much-anticipated State of the Union speech on Wednesday with a snub to Britain by insisting the EU will move towards greater integration despite Brexit. Speaking to Express.co.uk in Strasbourg, Ms von Storch, deputy leader of the far-right Alternative for Deutschland party, which is part of the Europe for Freedom and Democracy group in the EU parliament, labelled the speech “frightening”. She added eastern member states would be next to follow the UK out of Europe.

She said: “I think his whole speech was an historic one. He was going against all the good guys and he was declaring the United States of Europe. It was frightening what he came out with today. “The European Union which has been presented to us today is not the one we want to be members of. “But I think it will be difficult to set it up that way because imagine the eastern states and I think they will be the next to follow the Brits out of the European Union. “You could see him as a person today acting like a dying man with the last vision of something which is about to explode. I think it was to some extent tragic.”

Asked how long the EU could survive in its current form, she added: “It has to be reformed immediately. “They will change the European Union to the United States of Europe without treaty change. Without the change of the treaties. This is incredible what we have heard today." Meanwhile, Hans-Olaf Henkel, vice-president of the European Parliament’s third-largest group the European Conservatives and Reformists, said Brexit was a “big disaster” that Mr Juncker was ignoring. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr Henkel said the UK’s decision to leave the Brussels bloc would be just as bad for the EU as Britain.

He said: “He called it a full vision of Europe. I must say, it was more a fools’ vision of Europe because he seemed to have totally ignored the realities of Europe." Philippe Lamberts, co-leader of The Greens-European Free Alliance group said he “had his doubts” over the European Commission president, whose five-year term expires in 2019. Mr Juncker, who began speaking at 8am this morning, set out his 12-month masterplan to steer the troubled bloc through the escalating refugee crisis and reform the eurozone. Keen to push ahead with his masterplan, billed as the biggest reboot in the EU’s history, Mr Juncker ratcheted-up the federalisation of the 60-year-old bloc’s core economies. The Brussels boss has also called for European Union integration in the face of rising populism after Britain voted to sever ties with the bloc ahead of crunch elections in Italy, Sweden, Hungary and the Czech Republic, where eurosceptic parties are gaining momentum. It appears Jean-Claude Juncker is keen to make his mark in the EU as his five-year term as European Commission president expires in 2019 with a grand masterplan to rebuild the bloc, left in tatters after Britain’s momentous decision to leave.
President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, holds his annual State of the European Union speech in Strasbourg.