BRUSSELS (AP) – With Britain walking away and some eastern nations routinely showing open hostility, the European Union’s chief painted a bleak picture Wednesday of the bloc and implored the 27 remaining nations to stop bickering at a time when ever more people question its relevance.
While the U.S. president almost invariably lauds a strong union in his State of the Union address, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s annual speech to the European Parliament was rife with awkward truths.
“We should admit we have many unresolved problems,” he said, and asked an existential question about the future, if any, for the EU – “will Europe disappear from the international scene?”
After a half-century of unremitting growth, the EU has stalled, as was highlighted by June’s shock referendum result in Britain, when it became the first member state to ever decide to leave the constantly expanding bloc.
“The facts are plain: The world is getting bigger. And we are getting smaller,” Juncker said, adding that only standing together, however difficult that is, can fix the problem.