EU President Juncker’s state of the union speech

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (L) talks with European Parliament President Martin Schulz ahead of his address, about migrants crisis, to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, September 9, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Vincent Kessler European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker delivered a ‘state of the union’ speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday, including new proposals to tackle the migrant crisis facing the bloc. The following are key quotes and points from his speech: EUROPE HAS UNDERDELIVERED ON MIGRATION “We are not in a good state. There is a lack of Europe in the EU and there is a lack of union in the European Union. That has to change.” “We Europeans should remember that Europe is a continent where nearly everyone at some point has been a refugee.” Juncker mentioned historic huge waves of Irish, Scottish and Polish immigration to the United States. “We Europeans should know and never forget why the right to asylum is one of the fundamental, most important rights. We should not forget that.” “It is true that Europe cannot house all the misery in the world. But we have to put it into perspective.” “There is certainly an important and unprecedented number of refugees coming to Europe at the moment. However, they still represent just 0.11 pct of the total EU population. In Lebanon refugees represent 25 pct of population which has just 1/5 of the wealth of the EU.” “As long as there is war in Syria, the refugee crisis will not simply go away.”…