EU President Jean-Claude Juncker facing court for illegally blocking Brexit talks
Juncker issued a 'Presidential Order' stopping staff beginning Brexit negotiations - despite having no power to do so
LOATHED Europe chief Jean-Claude Juncker faces a humiliating court challenge for trying to unlawfully hinder Britain’s best breakaway deal from the EU.
Days after the UK’s historic referendum the EU President used a big televised speech to claimed he was using a “Presidential Order” to stop his officials starting to negotiate Britain’s exit.
The hated Eurocrat said no talks were allowed until Article 50 had been officially been triggered.
But now The Sun can reveal the Commission boss faces a courtroom battle over the boast – after his team admitted they have no power to issue “Presidential Orders” under any EU Treaty.
The Fair Deal for Expats group are set to bring an unprecedented case to the EU’s General Court accusing Juncker’s EU Commission of misleading and acting unlawfully.
The embarrassing case could derail Juncker’s presidency as he’s already blamed for Brexit by many in Brussels.
Last night the group’s legal team said Juncker’s fake order “breaches the duty of ‘sincere cooperation’ that the Commission is required to abide by” as it “discriminates against the UK and its people”.
They also claim the bogus order “infringes fundamental the rights of EU citizens who live in another EU country because no immediate and direct negotiations can take place to secure those rights.”
If they successfully lift the mythical “Presidential Order” Britain can begin negotiating Brexit immediately.
Speaking the European Parliament in the aftermath of Britain’s historic vote to quit the EU, Juncker said he had “forbidden Commissioners from holding discussions with representatives from the British
Government — by Presidential order, which is not my style.”
He added his speech on the 28 June that he had “told all the Directors-General that there cannot be any prior discussions with British representatives. No notification, no negotiation.”
Croft Solicitors, representing the Fair Deal for Expats, were later told by the Commission that there was no such thing as “Presidential Order”.
In fact Mr Juncker had sent a simple note to his officials asking them to “strictly respect “the principle of no negotiation without notification”.
Yet the lawyers will argue there is no such principle in any European Treaty and the note “amounted to the President purporting (unlawfully) to make such a policy or create such a principle.”
During the G20 meeting in China on Sunday Jean-Claude Juncker attacked Theresa May for holding trade talks with Australia.
He told reporters: “I don’t like the idea that member states of the EU, including those who are still a member state of the European Union, are negotiating free trade agreements.
Last night a European Commission spokesman said: “President Juncker, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk, the European Parliament President Martin Schulz, and a series of national leaders have all made clear that the legal ground for exiting the EU is Article 50 of the Treaty and that negotiations begin after that is triggered.”
They added: “President Juncker has instructed Commissioners and EC officials also to follow that principle.”
- The case is being crowdfunded, for more information