European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker today admitted that citizens had lost faith in the EU, during a speech at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

Juncker also said that the Commission had regulated too much and interfered too much in people’s lives in the past.

“The European project has lost parts of its attractiveness,” Juncker said at the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly.

“One of the reasons why EU citizens are stepping away from the European project is due to the fact that we are interfering in too many domains of their private lives and in too many domains where member states are better placed to take action.”

“We were wrong to overregulate and interfere too much in the lives of our citizens,” he added, before pointing to the executive’s drive to cut red tape as evidence of efforts to improve the perception of the EU.

The ‘better regulation’ strategy saw the withdrawal of 83 pending bills left over from the Barroso Commission. His administration had also launched far less legislation than its predecessor.

Juncker told national MPs sitting in the 47-member state Council of Europe, which is not an EU institution, “It’s true that we are not very popular when we advocate for Europe.

“We are no longer respected in our countries when we emphasise the need to give priority to the EU.”

He warned, “We will eventually end up with the ruins of this ideal; people who want more national things at the expense of European principles and they  [the people] will find themselves defenceless and the European union will no longer be respected around the world.”

David Fuller's view

I wonder if we would have had this Mea culpa were it not for the UK’s pending Brexit vote.