Juncker: I won't beg UK to back my bid for European commission presidency

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/05/juncker-european-commission-presidency-cameron

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Jean-Claude Juncker, the embattled frontrunner to head a new EU executive, delivered a bitter attack on Britain on Thursday, vowing he would not get on his knees to secure backing as next president of the European commission. He also strongly criticised European leaders, complaining he was being ignored after the grouping of Europe's centre-right parties won the European election.

Strongly opposed by David Cameron in his ambition to become the next president of the commission, Juncker declared he would not genuflect before the British, lambasted what he described as a British press campaign against his candidacy, and warned that he was running out of time to secure the most powerful post in Brussels.

The European People's party (EPP), which groups together the EU's Christian democrats, won the European parliament elections almost two weeks ago, with Juncker their candidate to become the new commission chief in the autumn. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is Europe's most powerful Christian democrat.

But Juncker's claim on the post has unleashed an increasingly vicious power struggle between the parliament and the EU's national leaders, as well as between Britain and other EU countries, with Cameron reported to have played his last-resort weapon: a warning that the UK could quit the EU if the Juncker candidacy succeeded. "It is wrong if we give in to the British here," Juncker told a closed meeting of the EPP in the parliament in Brussels on Thursday. "I will not be forced to get on my knees before the British."

Juncker's remarks to his party colleagues behind closed doors were made available to the Guardian.

"What bothers me is the gathering British press campaign. The tabloid press has occupied my house, photographers are harassing my neighbours, they are asking neighbours about family stories," the former prime minister of Luxembourg said. "You had better be ready for a lot more dirt."

Merkel endorsed Juncker's commission bid at an EPP congress in Dublin in March, although she and several other national leaders are unhappy with the parliament's attempts to call the shots on who should be the next commission chief – a decision that has always been made by the heads of government in the EU.

She emphasised twice this week that she wanted Juncker to replace José Manuel Barroso as commission president. But she also stressed she wanted to find a consensus that would accommodate Cameron.

Around midnight on Wednesday Merkel went to see Cameron at the 19th-century Brussels residence of the British ambassador – believed to be the first time she had been there – to try to hammer out a compromise. She stayed until after 1am. Downing Street said the talks were "candid and constructive", if inconclusive.

UK officials underlined their hostility to Juncker, described by Cameron as "a face from the past". "The fundamental issue is that for the next five years the commission has to play a different role. That means getting the right personality in the job," said a British official. "We're going to need to be more ruthless in what the EU does and does not do, that means getting the policies and the personalities right."

After a G7 summit in Brussels, Cameron said: "It's important that we have people running institutions of Europe who understand the need for change, the need for reform." While Cameron has raised the prospect of a British exit from the EU, Barack Obama, standing alongside the prime minister, weighed in on the opposite side of the argument. "It's always encouraging for us to know that Great Britain has a seat at the table in the larger European project," he said.

Referring to Friday's D-day commemorations, Obama added: "It was the steadfastness of Great Britain that in part allows us to be here in Brussels, in the seat of a unified and extraordinarily prosperous Europe. And it's hard for me to imagine that project going well in the absence of Great Britain, and I think it's also hard for me to imagine that it would be advantageous for Great Britain to be excluded from political decisions that have an enormous impact on its economic and political life."

The EU's leaders held a summit in Brussels on Tuesday last week to consider the impact of a tumultuous election that returned a record number of anti-EU MEPs on the hard left and far right and left many national leaders licking their wounds. It was at that summit that Cameron registered his utter opposition to Juncker.

Judging by Juncker's private remarks, Europe's Christian democratic government chiefs are paying lip service to his candidacy. The Luxembourger sounded aggrieved and abandoned. But he vowed to fight on, seeking to mobilise a broad coalition in the parliament in his support.

"With the exception of two heads of government, I have heard nothing from Herman Van Rompuy or the others [26 heads of government]," Juncker complained. "If the heads are not capable of making proposals, I have decided to march through the [parliamentary] caucuses. I will try to negotiate informally what might turn into a working programme for the commission."

It appeared from his remarks that Juncker enjoys only lukewarm support from his own centre-right and that he will try to muster a bigger majority by winning the backing of the centre-left, liberals and Greens. But with the election delivering a backlash against the austerity and spending cuts that were the principal policy response to four years of euro crisis, Juncker jeopardised his chances by stating he would make no concessions to the centre-left governments of France and Italy, heavily indebted and seeking a loosening of German-prescribed fiscal rigour.

"I will now start negotiations with the socialists," said Juncker. "I would happily extend them to other democratic parties, talk to the Greens and the liberals."

A "grand coalition" of Christian and social democrats, said Juncker, would deliver about 400 of the 751 parliamentary seats. "That's not enough. If I knew that all the EPP parties were behind me, the negotiations would be easier."

While stressing that growth and jobs had to be the priorities in Europe for the new commission, Juncker also said he would not relax the single currency rules for Matteo Renzi and François Hollande, the centre-left leaders of Italy and France.

Speaking in German he said: "The crisis is not yet over. If we now give a signal that we're going in a totally different direction that would be the wrong signal. Budget policy must remain as it is."

Switching to English, he said: "Otherwise we would fuck our own credibility."