Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Junckeris a Luxembourgish politician who has been President of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, since 2014. Previously Juncker was Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013, as well as Minister for Finances from 1989 to 2009. He was the longest-serving head of any national government in the EU, and one of the longest-serving democratically elected leaders in the world, by the time he left office, his tenure encompassing the height of the European...
NationalityLuxembourger
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth9 December 1954
Jean-Claude Juncker quotes about
I have always considered it to be a minor miracle that after the war, people in Europe's border regions were able to forget everything and, in accordance with the slogan "Never Again War," develop a program that still works today.
Anyone who believes that the eternal question of war and peace in Europe is no longer there risks being deeply mistaken.
In 1913 many believed that there would never again be a war in Europe. The great powers of the continent were so closely intertwined economically that the view was widespread that they could no longer afford to have military confrontations.
But anyone who believes that the eternal issue of war and peace in Europe has been permanently laid to rest could be making a monumental error. The demons haven't been banished; they are merely sleeping, as the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo have shown us.
My friendship with Martin [Schulz], by contrast, is completely different in that it goes far beyond politics.
In politics, there are different categories of friendship. My friendship with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, for example .
Yesterday's shining heroes of Brexit have become the sorrowful heroes of today.
I am in favor of the European institutions being led for the next two-and-a-half years as they have been thus far. We need stability.
Without the Turkey agreement, tens of thousands of refugees would still be stuck in Greece. The Commission presented proposals for securing Europe's external borders early on, but they languished in the Council for months. As you can see, the Commission isn't asleep. Oftentimes it has to wake up the others.
It is always said that Europe is a project of the elite. That's incorrect.
I completely agree with Helmut Kohl. I am not an advocate of the "United States of Europe," nor am I an integration fanatic.
We no longer have the pact from 1997; it was radically amended in 2005 and the Commission is applying this Stability Pact with wisdom and rationality.
I'm not deaf and the Commission isn't operating in a parallel world of legal texts.
The problem is: When two governments or institutions in Europe hold differing opinions, it is immediately a crisis.