UK cannot have 'à la carte access' to single market, says Juncker

The Brexit vote does not mean the “disintegration of the European Union”, the EU Commission President insisted on Wednesday at the state of the union address, as he warned the UK would not have access to the single market.

Jean-Claude Juncker said Britain "could not have à la carte access" to the single market without the free movement of people.

He called on the UK to trigger Article 50, the clause of the Lisbon Treaty which starts a two year negotiation period to leave the EU, “as quickly as possible”.

As he put forward proposals for greater defence spending and doubling the EU’s investment fund, he said Britain's decision to leave the trading block in the June referendum would not mean the beginning of the end of the EU.

"We don't want to destroy or undermine, we want to construct.

"Europe is not going down the path of nationalisation, it can never become that but there are splits out there and fragmentation exists where we need further effort from the Union.

"Many are wondering whether Brexit is the beginning of the disintegration process of the EU. Allow me to state, we respect and at the same time regret the UK's decision, but the EU as such is not at risk."

Brexit taskforce

In light of the Brexit result, the EU set up an Article 50 task force, led by chief negotiator and former French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, who Nick Clegg called “no friend of the City of London”, and Sabine Weyand, a German trade official.

The taskforce will “prepare and conduct negotiations with the UK, taking into account of the framework for its future relationship with the European Union”.

Britain is yet to trigger Article 50 and Prime Minister Theresa May said she would not activate it this year.

Jucker said: “Together Michel and his team will live up to this challenge and help us to develop a new partnership with the United Kingdom after it will have left the European Union”.

EU investment and 'youth wing'

Juncker condemned the recent attacks in the UK since the Brexit vote on immigrants and put forward several proposals for closer defence and foreign policy as well as doubling the EU’s investment fund to reach $500bn by 2020 and forging new initiatives on digital access.

The Europe fund for strategic investment has raised €116bn so far and he wants a similar fund set up for Africa, to curb migration, of at least €44bn.

He also said he wanted to create a 'youth wing' of the EU, a volunteer European solidarity corps, in part to deal with refugee crisis.

"By 2020, I want to see 100,000 Europeans taking part,"

The UK has resisted the idea of an alleged ‘EU army’ due its possible conflict with Nato, but Juncker maintained that "this should be in complement to Nato."

"More defence in Europe doesn't mean less transatlantic solidarity."

Internet reform

Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg announced plans to reform EU telecommunication rules to create a "fully deployed 5G" internet access across the trading bloc by 2025, which will "create a further two million jobs”.

“We want to create a new legal framework that attracts and enables investments in connectivity.”

He said he hoped “to equip every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020″.

Juncker concluded the address: “We need to do away with old spats which could lead to failure. We cannot survive without working together.”

For the first time since the UK joined the trading block in 1973, EU leaders met in an informal summit in the Slovak capital, Bratislava on Friday.