At a pre-G7 Summit press briefing with President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker addressed a wide range of issues, including the recovery of the global economy, the EU’s multilateral and bilateral trade agenda and the state of play of the EU-Turkey migration deal. He also announced that given the success of the Investment Plan for Europe, he would propose prolonging the Plan behind 2018. Finally, he expressed concerns about the overcapacity of China in the steel sector calling for stronger trade defence instruments at EU level.
President Juncker‘s remarks are available online. In the margins of the G7 Summit currently taking place in Ise-Shima, Japan, Presidents Juncker and Tusk on behalf of the EU,Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, issued a statement calling for the acceleration of negotiations on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)/Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to reaching an agreement in principle as early as possible in 2016, and commended the work of negotiators for the substantial progress made over the last 3 years. Read the full statement here.
