15 September, 2017
The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, called the bloc to deepen its economic ties around the world, from Asia Pacific to Latin America, with the ambition to promote free trade in the wake of President Donald Trump's "American First" policies. "But honestly, this is a long way", warned Thomas de Maiziere.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has defended his proposal, announced in the European Parliament in an annual speech on September 13, to expand the euro zone. Bulgaria and Romania, as well as Croatia and Cyprus want to join the area, while the United Kingdom, which is conducting negotiations with the European Union on UK's conditions of leaving the bloc, and Ireland refused to revoke border control. Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Norway introduced those controls and repeatedly extended them at fixed intervals, as answer of the massive emigrant flow. As well as the expansion of the borderless area, the president proposed action to encourage all applicable European Union members to adopt the euro as their currency. The strict euro-accession criteria would continue to apply, he said.
"The euro and the Schengen zone is open for everybody, but only for those that fulfill the criteria".
"We should also allow Croatia to become a full Schengen member once it meets all the criteria", he added.
On Wednesday, in his State of the Union Address, Juncker had said: "If we want the euro to unite rather than divide our continent, then it should be more than the currency of a select group of countries".
"If you like this is an expansion of the problems at the end of the day and not a plus in European cooperation".
