Juncker: EU ‘not in a good place’

The European Commission president gives passionate defense of the EU in his first State of the Union speech.

STRASBOURG — European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU is “not in a good place” and that it needs to move beyond “business as usual” to address the daunting political challenges facing the bloc.

“Now is not the time to go ahead willy-nilly, business-as-usual,” Juncker told members of the European Parliament and other EU officials Wednesday in his first State of the European Union speech as head of the Commission. “Please don’t feel that’s the case.”

Juncker said there had been progress in making the Commission more “political” but also criticized member states and EU leaders for failing to show solidarity — especially in dealing with the ongoing refugee crisis. As part of what he said should be a more coordinated, decisive approach to that problem, Juncker unveiled a new proposal to relocate 160,000 asylum-seekers across Europe.

Expectations were high for the speech, which Juncker had spent weeks preparing with a team of advisers and with input from all of his fellow Commissioners. But he delivered it in an unpolished, conversational style, filled with asides and personal notes, rather than in soaring, poetic rhetoric.

The tone may have been appropriate given the sometimes carnival-like atmosphere in the Parliament chamber, with members interrupting the speech several times. At one point an MEP in an Angela Merkel mask disrupted the speech by walking up to the podium.

Despite the casual approach, Juncker still delivered when it came to soundbites.

“There is a lack of Europe in the European Union. And there is a lack of union in this European Union. That has to change, and now,” Juncker said, striking a mostly subdued but at times scolding tone in his remarks. “We need to work together to that end.”

In a shift from the usual State of the Union template, Juncker largely avoided reciting a laundry list of policy updates in the speech, referring his audience instead to a letter he sent Tuesday night to leaders of other EU institutions. In it, Juncker outlined specific political priorities on which he claimed the Commission had made progress, but he nevertheless warned that the EU is at “a defining moment.”

“We are facing several unprecedented challenges,” he wrote — referring to the refugee crisis, the economic downturn and high unemployment, the situation in Ukraine, and climate change, among others — and called for  “bold, pragmatic action” to address them.

Switching between French and English, and using mainly the latter, Juncker spent more than half of his 77-minute address focused on the refugee issue. The crisis has consumed European headlines in recent months and pitted EU member states against each other over the best way to address it.

Saying that Europe has “not delivered” on a common response and that there has been too much “finger-pointing” between countries and Brussels, Juncker tried to goad EU leaders into action.

He proposed a “second emergency mechanism” to relocate an additional 120,000 asylum-seekers across the Union — for a total of 160,000 refugees currently in Italy, Greece and Hungary.

“This has to be done in a compulsory way,” Juncker said. “I really hope that this time, everyone will be on board. No podiums, no rhetoric. Action is what is needed for the time being.”

Warning that “winter is approaching” and that the humanitarian needs of refugees would become more acute, he said, “We are talking about human beings, we are not talking about numbers.”

Juncker was careful throughout the address not to refer to asylum-seekers as “migrants” but rather as “refugees.” He also used history to remind countries who have pushed back against the Commission’s relocation mechanism that there have been times throughout Europe when many others have also had to seek asylum.

Juncker also said the European Union should push for an “ambitious, robust and binding” climate deal at the global summit in Paris this December. A failure to get serious about global warming could spark the next migration crisis, he warned.

“Tomorrow morning we will have climate refugees,” Juncker said.

In a plea for “solidarity” and “responsibility,” he also introduced the Commission’s plan for a €1.8 billion trust fund to support stability in African countries, adding “I want all member states to chip in, we need this emergency trust fund to prevent future crisis.”

He called for a “fair deal” on negotiations with the U.K. ahead of a referendum on its EU membership, stressing that freedom of movement cannot be changed. He also endorsed a transatlantic trade deal with the U.S.

“I’m in favor of the TTIP but I’m not in favor of giving up European standards, European principles,” Juncker said. “As in the case of Britain, the freedom of movement of workers cannot be touched, the same is with the transatlantic agreement, there are basic principles that cannot be given up.”

Juncker also addressed the EU’s — and especially the Commission’s — response to the Greek financial crisis.

“The Commission had to deal with the Greek issue because it would have been a weakness on our part and a failure of the Commission [not to],” Juncker said. “Therefore we did what we thought was right and what we thought was our duty.”

Noting that the stakes were high during the protracted summer debate over a third bailout package for Greece, including the possibility that the country would exit the euro currency, Juncker said: “It was up to us to say that ‘Grexit’ was not an option. If we didn’t say it would have happened.”

He also noted the toll the Greek debate took on the European political climate, saying the bailout talks “tested all our patience. A lot of time and a lot of trust was lost. Bridges were burnt. Words were said that cannot easily be taken back. We saw political posturing, bickering and insults carelessly bandied about.”

Throughout a speech that he admitted was “too long,” Juncker was heckled from some parliamentarians in the audience, especially Nigel Farage, the Euroskeptic British MEP. But he pushed back early, saying he would not respond directly to the complaints from some members about European policy.

“I am noting that you are not Europeans,” Juncker said. “What you are saying is worthless.”

“We are too seldom proud of our European project,” he said. “Europe is by far the wealthiest place and the most stable continent in the world. Those who are criticizing the European Union have to admit that this is the place of peace and this is the place of stability and we are proud of this.”

Parliament President Martin Schulz also interrupted the speech at one point to note that a member of the assembly, Gianluca Buonanno, was disrupting the proceedings by wearing a Merkel mask over his face. Buonanno, an Italian from the Euroskeptic Lega Nord party, walked down to the podium to shake Juncker’s hand as other deputies laughed or cringed.

The Commission president quipped that Europe was showing “unity in diversity.”

The speech was delivered at a difficult time for Juncker, whose mother died on Saturday and whose father is in poor health. The Commission president did not refer directly to his personal loss, but said as he began the speech that the timing was tough for him.

After Juncker had finished, Schulz informed the assembly that Juncker’s mother had died and saluted the Commission president for carrying out a political “duty” despite his personal loss.

“We really feel for you because of the death of your mother,” Schulz said, as members applauded.