Jean – Claude Juncker presented the final composition of European Commission and its work program in the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg asking for the vote of confidence of MEPs.

At the beginning of his speech, Mr. Juncker referred to José Manuel Barroso and the criticism he has received during his ten-year term by saying that “he is very often harshly accused, while in fact he has done very important work”.

Following his speech, Mr. Juncker said that the new European Commission would be completely different from the previous one, stressing that it will deal with the daily problems of European citizens and will try to find viable solutions while he reiterated his commitment to examine the reforms applied to Member States based also on their consequences on society.

He also addressed to the President of Parliament Martin Schulz and stressed that Germans should have a more important role in the EU and rejected the persistent idea of some members on excessive austerity.

“We need fiscal discipline, but also some flexibility regarding the implementation of the regulations. To those who think excessive austerity will automatically revive growth and create more jobs, they should drop those ideas”.