Juncker’s comments on Italy, as reported on the Guardian, stirs controversy and criticism.
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“Italians need to work harder and be less corrupt”. This is what the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, would have said, according to the Guardian.
Juncker’s declaration has created a trail of controversy and a major issue within the European institution’s leadership, that has pushed the President of the EU Parliament Antonio Tajani and the M5s to ask for a denial to the EU Commission President.
Later in the evening, ANSA reported that what Juncker said was “I deeply love the ‘beautiful Italy’ but I do not accept that everything that goes wrong in the South is explained by the fact that the EU or the European Commission would not do enough, it is the Italians who have to deal with the poorest regions of Italy. Which means more work, less corruption and seriousness “.
This was stated by the President of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker during the ‘New Pact for Europe’ conference in Brussels, responding to a question on youth unemployment in southern Italy.
However, Juncker reiterated his “full trust in the genius of Italians”. “We will help them, as we have always done, but it is enough with this game to put the responsibility on the EU: a country is a country, a nation is a nation, first the nations come and then Europe”,
The site of the British newspaper Guardian, referring to the words of the president of the commission, titled ‘Italians must work harder and be less corrupt’. “I do not understand that the president used those words, but the words attributed to Juncker were taken out of context,” said the commission spokesperson of the ANSA on the Guardian version. On TGCOM, Juncker ‘s spokesperson, explained that the Guardian had decontextualised the statements (the only international media actually proposing this version), then specified that Juncker referred “to the structural problems of the Southern Regions Italy, where the EU has done much to mobilise funds and create growth and jobs “, but” absorption of funds can be improved so that people can see results on the ground more quickly “.
