Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Union’s powerful commission, said on Saturday he would not seek a second term when his tenure expires in 2019.
“It was a fine election campaign” in 2014, Juncker told Deutschlandfunk radio, according to extracts of an interview that will be broadcast on Sunday, AFP reported.
“But there won’t be a second one, because I won’t be putting myself forward as a candidate for a second time.”
He also admitted to fearing that Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union could open up splits in the bloc.
“The British are going to succeed, without too much difficulty, to divide the 27 other EU countries,” he said.
“The British know very well how to achieve this. You promise one thing to state A, another to state B and something else to state C and you end up with no united European front.” Germany’s influential Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that European leaders may commit to a union of “different speeds” when they make a major declaration on its future at a summit in Rome next month.
