Jean-Claude Juncker Briefings

TRANSLATION: Good morning. Dear Mayor, dear President of the

University Institute, current president, the former... The number

of people being able to speak and understand Luxembourg. I will be

between English and French, but I make my choice, I will express

myself in French because... APPLAUSE

Slowly but surely, English is losing importance in Europe... And then the

French will have elections on next Sunday and I would like them to

understand what I'm saying about Europe and about nations.

TRANSLATION: Before that, I admit I will have to cut my speech short. It

is a very long speech, a keynote speech which I think would be

somewhere out our place, as far as today's agenda is concerned. That is

because our Italian friends who took the floor before me, took more time

than expected. And therefore, my proposal is just to share some

thoughts on Europe with you. First of all, let me say how pleased I am

to be back in Florence. This is a wonderful city, a city of culture,

an extraordinary city. One filled with light, one filled with

sunshine, which makes us all dream and which allows us to think about

key topics concerning the future of Europe and the world. I am glad to

be back in Italy and Europe owes a lot to Italy. Italy is a country and

I owe a great deal too. Because I grew up in the south of Luxembourg,

I grew up alongside the children of Italian immigrants, who lived

alongside my parents, who were my next-door neighbours. I love Italy,

I love Italy and I love Italian is. And I am especially happy to be

hosted by the European University Institute, the procedure which is

recognised internationally. Their activities, their research and allow

us to understand Italy better. Their research allows us to understand

Europe better. Although it sometimes seems impossible. The president of

the Institute, its professors, its students, who work and study here in

Florence, help us to better understand the issues, the

challenges we face. Whenever we talk about Europe, besides the things

said by the president of the European Parliament, I often notice

we never discuss the successes are obtained by the European Union. We

talk of its shortcomings, of its mistakes, but I feel its successors

are very many indeed and they are impressive. The only ones who don't

appreciate these successes obtained by the EU, are the Europeans

themselves. The further we travel from Europe, the more enthusiasm we

see in the hearts and minds of those who listen to us. And it saddens me

to go back to Brussels when I notice all this. In this valley of tears,

in which we are all criticised, offended, destroyed, torn to pieces.

Whereas, elsewhere in the world, men and women Admir Europe. They should

Admir Europe because Europe has been able to overcome decades, centuries

of bloodshed. And the Europeans were able to come up with a piece, Common

Pleas. It was an extraordinary result in the history of the world.

We owe this to the generation of our fathers and grandfathers. The

generations who experienced war. We thank them because after they

returned from the concentration camps, after they returned from the

battlefield, they were capable of transforming their struggle against

war into a political approach, which has been very beneficial to us all.

After so many years of divisions in the post-war period, Europe was able

to unite. Europe was able to reconcile with its history and its

geography by broadening itself towards the central and Eastern

European countries. The enlargement process, which contrary to many

claimed, was not a mistake at all. It wasn't premature, it wasn't too

hasty. It was our historical duty to understand what was happening.

Europe had to deal with the events unfolding in Europe in the 1990s and

we have to be proud of what we were able to obtain. We were able to

reconcile our history and geography, we were able to reunite, or rather,

unite Europe for the first time in the history of our continent through

peace. This was the major success we obtained in the 1990s, along with

the creation of the single market, which was a true success. Our

history is marked by a number of different successes. We were able to

give Europe a single currency, the euro. When no one believed we could

have been able to achieve it, yet, we succeeded. Despite the huge

efforts it up, the euro is now the world's second currency and then, as

now, the euro protects Europe from external shocks. It does not cause

internal shocks. The Euro protects us from external shocks. Think about

what would have happened had we not had the euro during the Iraq war.

Following the attacks in New York and Washington, following the events

in Afghanistan, following the economic and financial crisis which

came from far. A crisis that is, in the past, we could only have dealt

with with our national means. Had we left that task to the national

central banks alone, we would never have been able to succeed, we would

never have been able to react. The European Commission and the European

Parliament are facing a number of different crises. Different crises,

which follow one another and even overlap. Sometimes we feel we have

been successful in responding to a crisis, than all of a sudden, other

crises, long. We have thought that Europe could have improved, returned

to growth, a weak growth, but yet it was a gross in the countries of the

European Union and the countries in the Eurozone. Unemployment is

declining and the employment rate has never been higher. And now,

growth in the European Union is twice that than in the US. And I

feel we can be reassured as far as the future is concerned. At that

point, despite the success, despite the growth, our British friends

decide to leave the EU. Which is a tragedy. We shouldn't underestimate

the importance of the decision made by the British people. It is no

small offence. And of course, we will negotiate with our British

friends in full transparency, but there should be no doubt whatsoever,

it isn't the EU which is abandoning the UK. It is the opposite, in fact.

They are abandoning the European Union and this is the difference

that will be felt over the next few years. But of course, my friend,

Michel Barnier will be giving us the details of this negotiation. All of

the details we will be facing very soon. Europe does have some

weaknesses which can partly explain the outcome of the referendum in the

UK. There are some weaknesses which, perhaps, we sometimes overlook. We

may be scared of the truth sometimes. The truth which may

emerge on the horizon. Europe, as every other continent, as every

other country or state in fact, it needs to accept the fact that each

and every policy is a result of the meeting between she grew free and

politics. Europe is the smallest continent, the European territory is

in fact only 7 million square kilometres. Think of Russia. It has

17.5 billion square kilometres. We have some very large neighbours.

Neighbours, facing major problems. How can we think we can solve it

all? We need to have players, protagonists who can serve the

entire globe, the entire world. We are the smallest continent. We are

losing our economic power, our economic clout. We currently

represent 25% of the global GDP. In ten years, that percentage will

shrink down to 15%. Therefore, we will be a smaller continent, our

economies will decline proportionately, our demographics

will face a crisis. The beginning of the 20th century, the Europeans were

25% of the world's population. At the end of the 20th century and

early 21st century, we represent 24% of the world's population. Those who

feel that these elements that we cannot think of changing alone,

shouldn't lead us to further dividing. Those who feel we have to

go back to our individual nations are wrong. The time has come to

further increase our cooperation, further unite. In the upcoming

years, we will have to avoid making some of the mistakes we committed in

the past. Europe and the European Union, and

we should never mix the two up. The European Union has perhaps done a

little too much from certain aspects. Even the commission, too

many rules, too much interference in the lives of our citizens. We have

sometimes tried to change all this. The commission which I am honoured

to be president of has eliminated 100 proposals of the previous

commission. We only make 23 proposals per year whereas

previously 120 proposals or more were made every year. I know that

Antonio and others of the European Parliament complain about the fact

that the European Commission draft is far too little legislation. Well,

our intention is to improve the quality of our legislation, such as

the environment. That is a key priority. We have 450 billion euros

which will be allotted to create new jobs. We want a focus on foreign

trade because 30 million jobs that directly depend from exports through

other countries in the world, and every billion euro more in terms of

exports is equal to a further 14,000 jobs. We are focusing on

investments, and together with Bernard Hoyer, the president of the

European investment bank, who I want to greet very warmly, we have

launched the European fund for strategic investments. You may

remember this. This used to be called the young care plan, because

those who felt it would have been a complete failure wanted to identify

the plan with a guilty party, yours truly. Whereas now it has been

proven to be successful, it has been called the European fund for

strategic investments, whereas it is exactly the same thing. We simply

doubled the investment. 180 million euros have been invested so far and

thanks to the tools of the fund, we have increased that amount to 630

billion euros, which means that 500 billion euros will be mobilised by

2020. This went to be to the benefit of major corporations alone. In

Italy, there are thousands of SMEs who will be supported by this. This

is the path we need to continue on. I believe the European Union does

too much sometimes and too little other times. The investment plan is

one of the responses to the investment crisis. A crisis we

inherited from the major economic and financial crisis of the past few

years. In other sectors, we don't do as much as we should. In the defence

sector, I am a military expert and the army in Luxembourg only has 660

military, which means I myself did not have the opportunity to turn

into a warrior and I have no intention of becoming one in the

future, but I feel Europe should be able to defend itself somewhat

better. We spend 50% of what the US spends on defence. That means we

should be at least 50% as efficient as the US is. In Europe, 75

different types of weapons exist. In the US, only for. And 85% of

military and defence investment in Europe is based on national

programmes alone. Whereas, if we use a European approach as far as the

military sector is concerned, we could save a great deal of money

every year and we could use those proceeds to improve the

effectiveness of our defence systems. The commission has

presented a few proposals from this point of view and I would hope that

the other institutions can start dealing with these issues in an

in-depth way, which is something that in fact the European Parliament

is doing along with the European Council. Despite a limited number of

people who are hesitant, we have to realise the fact that we have two

speed Europe can improve. That is on

defence. I am not speaking about a European army, not saying we have to

set up a European army. That is not something that is going to take

place any time soon, but we have to do more for defence, we have to do

more for Europe. Europe must have a place in dead things to come, in the

innovation part, and we must do more for social Europe. We have a social

dimension in Europe which is important and a large part of the

explanation is that we have to bring to the disaffection Europeans feel

for the European Union is due to the fact the social dimension is

underdeveloped, which is the reason why the commission has set up a

proposal for minimum rights, and we hope in Gothenburg with the Swedish

Government, and I want to greet the Minister of European affairs, we

hope that we will set up this better setup for the social don't mention.

I'd like for all of you, those who wish, to be able to participate. I

haven't talked about the White book and about the five scenarios that

the commission has proposed. I won't do it because this is just a chat,

so to speak, not a real speech, but I would like you to know that it is

not an act of courage for the president to propose five scenarios.

I should have proposed only one scenario. How much is it? Only one

minute I have left. We proposed five scenarios because we wouldn't want

to proceed in the way that one always acts in Brussels, dictate

this, dictate that. It is no longer the way to act. It is no longer the

good method and I hope that everybody in Europe understands that

we have two discussed, compare, propose, summarise, section the

different scenarios in order to find the scenario that is the best one

for Europe. That means probably none of the five that were mentioned in

the White book, because it is a way of finding the intersections between

here and from one another. There is one I have included, the scenario

which wants to reduce Europe to simply being a big internal market

without any ambition, because Europe is more. Europe is more than a

high-level free exchange. We know some are leaving the European Union

and some think it's not as complicated and requires less

effort. Europe is more than just money or just a market. Europe is

not just a market, we must understand that, because we don't

understand it, we will not only lose the market, but we will lose the

continental possibility of launching ourselves, which will allow us to

prosper and go forwards. APPLAUSE

We sometimes do too much but sometimes do too little. There's not

enough solidarity in Europe. The great absentee in Europe is

solidarity. And who am I saying this to? In Italy, I have said this in

this exact city when I was campaigning in 2014 with the result

is that you know, Italy, from the very first day of the migration

crisis, has been doing everything it could do, Italy, in fact, in spite

of the lack of presence of Europe, Italy has saved and is saving the

honour of Europe. APPLAUSE

And, we have to be, have more solidarity with Italy and with

Greece. They are not responsible for the geographic conflagration of

Europe. They just happen to be there. Greece and Italy are in this

position. The commission has made some proposals in April 2015, even

before a proposal of solidarity, a proposal of solidarity with those

who cannot be left alone with the consequences of the migration flows.

The council took a decision. The treaties were there to make this

possible and there were a number of member states who did not respect

his decision. If Europe begins no longer respecting the rule is that

it gives to itself following the rules of the treaty, we will go

towards what will be our last and the number of these states... I

mean, it a member -- a matter of putting into practice the idea of

Europe. Those who say, it's your problem, we don't accept it on our

territory, men and women who are coloured, we don't accept them, men

and women who are not Catholic, they are wrong. They are wrong on the

nature of Europe. APPLAUSE

. And all of this, dear friends, is not a reason to fall into despair,

because Europe does great things and we try to do great things, we keep

trying. We need a lot of patience, we need a lot of determination. It

is thanks to this patience and determination that we will go

forward and that is how we will bring forward our ambitions. So,

long live France, long-lived Italy and long live Europe.

APPLAUSE