Europe is capable of surprising us (Juncker)
(B2) We forget how much the current President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is a veteran of European politics and has a memory. On many points – his European commitment, the need for a more common European defense and a Europe that moves – the man has, in fact, changed little. And we find this conviction, fairly intact, in the White Paper he is presenting today on the future of Europe. Guaranteed freshness...
NB! One could believe to be mistaken there in an interview carried out today. This is not reality. Let's face it... We got caught up in the game. The words couldn't be more faithful, they were made by the man who is now President of the European Commission. Guess when they were pronounced? (*) You will see that the man (whom we can possibly criticize on other aspects) has an extraordinary political righteousness that commands respect...
You are ambitious...
JCJ — Since I have been involved in European political life, I have repeatedly observed that Europe is advancing at the pace of its ambitions.
We have the impression in Europe that we have to wait for some to move for it to work...
JCJ — Always, in Europe, the model of evolution of things is the same. I remember when I was Minister of Finance and I was in charge of leading the IGC on Economic and Monetary Union. In fact, there were three of us who were deeply convinced that Europe needed the single currency. [...] At the time, only three of us were convinced to try to make it work to make it a European success. Whenever Europe has no doubts about itself, whenever it harbors great ambitions for itself and for the rest of the world, Europe is capable of surprising those who make it up and those who observe it.
Security Union, Defense Union, you have this word regularly in your mouth...
JCJ — The European Security and Defense Union is part of these European ambitions. (With this project) we are actually making our European project more complete and more credible. More complete on the inside, since we are taking into the European bosom attributions which formerly were exclusively national. More credible on the outside, because we would like this economic giant, this major international figure from the monetary point of view, to also become, with all the attributes and all the consequences that flow from it, a major international player.
It is a military superpower that you want to create in the image of the United States...
JCJ — (No) We don't want to create Europe as a military superpower. We want to create a European Defense and Security Union. We want it in the service, in particular, of the common foreign and security policy. And this is found in particular in the connection between military, political and diplomatic effort classic.
(words transcribed by Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
(*) These remarks are taken from the press conference held... on April 29, 2003! at the top of Pralines in Brussels for four (Chirac, Schröder, Verhofstadt... and Juncker)
