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Jean-Claude Juncker: Europe needs more than ‘poems’

Commission president said agreement by EU leaders in Bratislava was not ‘sufficiently concrete.’

STRASBOURG — EU leaders need to agree on more than “poems and declarations” if they want to move Europe forward after Brexit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday.

Speaking to members of the European Parliament, Juncker said an informal summit of 27 EU leaders last month in Bratislava had failed to deliver “sufficiently concrete” results. He said another gathering of leaders in Brussels later this month would have to do better.

“We don’t need poems, we don’t need solemn declarations,” Juncker said. “We will need to adopt a program which will allow us to make progress.”

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The “declaration and roadmap” agreed in Bratislava by all EU leaders except Britain’s Theresa May included plans for enhanced defense and security cooperation and beefed-up border controls, as well as an agreement to double the size and duration of a strategic investment plan.

Even as he prodded leaders to do more, Juncker said the Bratislava agreement was at least a good start. He also said he was glad many of the agreements in Bratislava included promises made in his State of the Union speech, delivered in Strasbourg two days before the meeting in Slovakia.

It was “the first time,” Juncker said, EU leaders had paid so much attention to a Commission president’s proposals. “Normally they wouldn’t take note.”

Some MEPs expressed similar frustration about the outcome of the Bratislava meeting. Maria João Rodrigues, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from Portugual, said it should have been less about the need to protect European external borders than about welcoming and hosting refugees.” “The problem is still there,” Rodrigues said.

Juncker also sought to reassure MEPs about progress on pending EU trade deals. The Commission president said some last-minute tweaks to an EU-Canada deal would address remaining concerns of all countries ahead of the next summit.

“I’m in ongoing discussions with the Canadian prime minister today and tomorrow and I think we will reach a final agreement which will take on board in a specific declaration the concerns of all the member states,” Juncker said.

The Commission and the Canadian government are currently drafting a legally binding declaration that will be added to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement to allay concerns on public services, labor and environmental rights and a controversial investment court system. This is crucial for certain EU countries to approve the deal.

“We have to make sure that [CETA] will enter into force after a certain number of months,” Juncker said. He further argued that the already running trade deal with South Korea is a good example why “trade is essential,” since 210,000 new jobs had been created under the agreement.