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© RIA Novosti / Sergey Guneev
The security of the EU without Russia could not be achieved, so the EU and Russia should work on improving bilateral relations. This was stated on Tuesday the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking at a meeting of the heads of the EU diplomatic missions in Brussels.
“We need to comprehend the improvement of relations with Russia. It depends on Russia, but it also depends on us. However, to build a European security the future century is impossible without Russia,” warned Juncker.
The diplomat called on EU ambassadors “to formulate realistic rhetoric in relations with Russia, while not compromising the basic principles of the European Union”.
According to Juncker, the Europeans should stop acting like the masters of the world, as the EU’s role on the world stage is declining and will continue to decline. “The story goes very fast and sometimes faster than we know it. We feel and behave as masters of the world, whereas today we need to act more modest,” he said.
He stressed that the share of the European economy and the share of the European population in the world is invariably reduced, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
“Today, our GDP is 24-25% of the world total, in 10 years it will be reduced to 20%. The size of our population in the beginning of the century accounted for 10% of the world total — by the end of it will be reduced to a few percent,” he said.
In this regard, the Juncker urged EU countries to strive for greater solidarity for the common defense of their interests in the world. He also stressed that the overall economic situation in Europe is slowly but consistently improving, including employment growth and reduce goszadolzhennosti. According to him, the migratory situation in the EU also began to gradually stabilize.