EU chief under pressure to QUIT after angering Merkel by gloating about Brexit and ‘bungling’ the migrant crisis
Jean-Claude Juncker faces scrutiny over his perceived inability to handle migrant and Greek debt crises
THE president of the European Commission faces pressure to stand down after being accused of bungling the migrant and Greek debt crises.
As pressure mounts on the EU member states after the Brexit vote, EC president Jean-Claude Juncker has been accused of not only failing to deal with the issues affecting the EU but making them even worse.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is just one leader who is said to be furious with Juncker after he reportedly insisted there would be even closer political ties, gloating over Britain’s decision to leave the EU, The Times reported.
The Sun earlier reported Merkel wanted Mr Juncker out "within the year".
But Mr Juncker’s term as the EC president is set to finish in 2019, with the former prime minister of Luxemborg unable to be removed from his current position unless he resigns.
Mr Juncker's perceived failure to deal with the migrant and debt crises has also put him under pressure from the irate nations of The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and eastern European countries.
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The European Commission is the executive of the European Union and works to promote its general interests.
Slovakia, who has just taken up its six-month rotating presidency of the EU, has already planned an attack on Mr Juncker’s powers with plans to discuss the matter at a summit in Bratislava on September 16.
The scrutiny over Mr Juncker’s position has further heightened after German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble revealed chancellor George Osborne made a request for Berlin to warn Britain it would be left out of EU’s single market if the Brexit vote was successful.
Speak to the British Chambers of Commerce four months ago, Schäuble warned British voters that a vote to leave the EU would be a “catastrophe”.
He further launched a scathing attack on Boris Johnson yesterday in an interview with Welt am Sonntag, saying Johnson had no plan for Britain to leave the EU.
He said: “I have never met him, but the way he has led this campaign does not meet my expectations of responsibility and seriousness.”
