On 18 November 2015 European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker took part in a town hall meeting-style Citizens’ Dialogue, within the framework of “Les Journées de Bruxelles”. For over an hour, the President was listening to citizens, answering their questions and having a direct exchange on issues of great concern for most Europeans.
The 2015 series of Citizens’ Dialogues started in January 2015. This year, 49 Dialogues have taken place in 26 Member States. The Bozar Dialogue is the 50th and the first one with the President himself. Accordingly, the President of the European Commission focused on a number of Political priorities of the Juncker Commission, like migration, EU-US freed trade, jobs and growth, fairness and democratic change.
President Juncker delivered a strong and passionate speech focused on the migration crisis, the terror of the Paris attacks and the challenges the EU is currently facing.
On the fight against terrorism he said that Europe is not at war, but in action. He stressed the importance of a better coordination and exchange of info between national intelligence and security services and characterized the cooperation between the French and the Belgian police exemplary.
He pointed out that we should avoid the amalgam between terrorists and refugees. Religion must never be used to divide. It is a uniting force. Member states must act in solidarity, while being moderate and reasonable. They should keep their promises. President referred to the actions the EU and its allies will take in order to combat and eliminate terrorism. He said that a Syria without Assad would not be the solution but there is no solution with only Assad either. He finds very positive the joint actions, between Russia, France and the US. Juncker pointed out that there is no defense architecture in Europe without Russia. We will need bombs and consequently military intervention in order to profoundly combat terrorism, raising the question of credibility and emergency of the member states and expressing the ambition of a European defence policy. ‘’Terrorists want to destroy our way of living together. We need to defend our values’’ he added. The financial assistance to France is not a war funding, but aligning the means to give stability to citizens through structural efforts.
President Juncker made clear that EU will make available around €3bn not for Turkey, but for the refugees in Turkey. Turkey will not spend this amount of financial support alone, but the spending will be under the continuous surveillance of the European Commission. Public freedom must oppose to terrorism without being excessive and naïve.
He underlined the need to reinvent new mechanisms for the emergencies and went through some other priorities and challenges the EU should deal with. He is in favor of signing the TTIP without decreasing EU’s social and environmental levels and without giving up EU’s standards. Commissioner Malmstrom is doing a great job on that and has been very transparent the President mentioned.
He continued his speech by underlining the positive signs for a social Europe, although they are not sufficient for a social triple A. Europe has to set somehow minimum standards of social rights. He highlighted the different and various checks and balances and orbits that will be applied in the future structure of the EU, and placed himself not in favour of a small and big Europe.
Following the interactive dialogue with citizens, some other issues were raised namely, Brexit, EU’s future and next step and EU citizenship. Accordingly, he reacted by saying that Brexit will not occur and EU is working for a fair deal for Britain. Additionally, he replied by elaborating on the issue that it is not the time for a theological and philosophical debate and that European Commission will not change the priorities set. EU budget is mediocre but we should make the employment policy more offensive. He mentioned that we should say ‘’no’’ to all forms of racism and extremism and defend ardently the EU values. President also stated that he will be holding on investigating Luxleaks scandal and stated that he does not want his generation to be the one that reintroduced borders in Europe.
In a romantic and usual “Juncker style” he concluded by emphasizing that Europe is the big love of his life.