We don’t know what explains European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s intemperate and ridiculous outbursts, but they are counterproductive and not befitting a person in his position.
Ukraine witnessed one such off-policy remark during his visit to Kyiv in July, when President Petro Poroshenko convinced him over talks to soften a longstanding European Union demand that Ukraine establish an anti-corruption court. While Juncker backpedaled after that boneheaded remark, just this week he threatened retaliation against the United States if the new sanctions against Russia harm EU energy companies and their business with the Kremlin. All of these and other remarks remind people how he alienated so many Brits that some think he contributed to the majority voting in a referendum last year to exit the EU.
Certainly the 28-nation bloc can find someone more diplomatic, even-tempered and effective than Juncker, not to mention someone who can distinguish a friend of Europe (America) from an enemy (Russia).
