Juncker: No UK politician is ‘passionate about Europe’

Britain’s focus on economy instead of values helped fuel anti-immigrant backlash, says European Commission president.

By Esther King

5/2/19, 12:05 AM CET

Updated 5/2/19, 3:24 PM CET

British politicians aren't "passionate about Europe," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Hungarian media in an interview published Thursday, saying the U.K. had always insisted the EU was "about economic interests, not values."

"Over decades of meeting British politicians, my impression has always been that they don’t feel at home in the EU," Juncker told Hungarian outlet HVG. "I’ve not met anyone in their political elite who was passionate about Europe."

Juncker drew a link between the U.K.'s 2016 vote to leave the EU and the fact that British politicians "for decades" told voters that the EU is primarily about economic cooperation, not about common values.
"This was the reason why they so eagerly supported the 2004 enlargement," when Brussels welcomed 10 new countries into the bloc, and failed to "introduce any transitional restrictions whatsoever" to restrict access to the U.K.'s labor market, Juncker said.
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