The EU referendum is David Cameron’s “self-induced problem” and there can be no more talks if Britain votes to leave, Jean-Claude Juncker has said.
The European Commission president said in a speech that his patience had run out with the prime minister, who tried to block him from taking the EU’s top job in 2014 only to come pleading for help to win the vote.
“There must not be any renegotiations with the British in case of a ‘No’; not only because the British prime minister voted against me when I wanted to become president of the commission but also because he was so glad that we helped him to get a grip on his problem, his self-induced problem,” Mr Juncker said.
It is the first time Mr Juncker has expressed resentment at Mr Cameron’s attempt to stop him becoming the head of the EU executive.
During a speech in German to a Dutch think tank on Thursday night, Mr Juncker urged Eurosceptics to visit European war cemeteries, such as Verdun, to learn that the EU is “a major project for peace”.
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Mr Juncker also blamed “contagion” from the British referendum for Hungary’s decision to hold a vote on commission plans to establish a permanent system of binding quotas to share migrants evenly across countries that are part of the Schengen passport-free zone.
Official EU figures yesterday showed that 1,255,600 asylum seekers arrived in Europe last year. Syrians fleeing the civil war were the largest group — nearly 363,000, followed by 178,200 Afghans and 121,500 Iraqis.
The influx has triggered Europe’s worst migration crisis since the Second World War and pushed the Schengen travel zone to the brink of collapse.
EU leaders will hold an emergency summit in Brussels on Monday to discuss measures that would seal the Balkans route from Greece alongside €700 million in aid to help Greek refugee camps to deal with this year’s influx of migrants.
Donald Tusk, who will chair the summit, held talks in Istanbul with President Erdogan of Turkey yesterday on plans for a “fast and large-scale mechanism” to return failed asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey.
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After the talks, he said that Turkey was ready to take back migrants, including Syrian refugees, if they were picked up in international waters heading for Greece.
“For the first time since the beginning of the migration crisis, I can see a European consensus emerging,” he said. “It is a consensus around a comprehensive strategy that, if loyally implemented, can help to stem the flows.”
The commission estimates that reintroducing border controls has resulted in “immediate direct costs” of €5 billion to €18 billion annually.