Jean-Claude Juncker (born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who was prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He was also Luxembourg's Finance Minister from 1989 to 2009 and President of the Eurogroup from 2005 to 2013.
By the time Juncker left office as prime minister in 2013, he was the longest-serving head of any national government in the EU and one of the longest-serving democratically elected leaders in the world, with his tenure encompassing the height of the European financial and sovereign debt crisis. In 2005, he became the first permanent President of the Eurogroup.
In 2014, the European People's Party (EPP) had Juncker as its lead candidate, or Spitzenkandidat, for the presidency of the Commission in the 2014 elections. This marked the first time that the Spitzenkandidat process was employed. Juncker is the first president to have campaigned as a candidate for the position prior to the election, a process introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon. The EPP won 220 out of 751 seats in the Parliament. On 27 June 2014, the European Council officially nominated Juncker for the position, and the European Parliament elected him on 15 July 2014 with 422 votes out of the 729 cast. He took office on 1 November 2014 and served until 30 November 2019, when he was succeeded by Ursula von der Leyen.
Juncker has stated that his priorities would be the creation of a digital single market, the development of an EU Energy Union, the negotiation of the Transatlantic Trade Agreement, the continued reform of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union—with the social dimension in mind, a "targeted fiscal capacity" for the Eurozone, and the 2015–2016 British EU membership renegotiations.
Early life Juncker was born in Redange and spent the majority of his childhood in Belvaux. His father, Joseph "Jos" Juncker (1924-2016), was a steel worker and Christian trade unionist who was forcibly conscripted into the German Wehrmacht during World War II, following the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg, and fought on the Eastern Front. Juncker has often remarked that the horrors of war he heard from his father's experiences had a profound influence in shaping his views on the need for European reconciliation and integration. His mother was born Marguerite Hecker. He cites the assassination of John F. Kennedy as his first political memory. Juncker studied at the Roman Catholic école apostolique (secondary school) at Clairefontaine on the edge of Arlon in Belgium, before returning to Luxembourg to study for his Baccalaureate at Lycée Michel Rodange. He joined the Christian Social People's Party in 1974. He studied law at the University of Strasbourg, graduating with a master's degree in 1979; although he was sworn into the Luxembourg Bar Council in 1980, he never practised as a lawyer.
Juncker grew up in Belvaux, in the commune of Sanem in the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette in the south of Luxembourg. Dominated by coal and steel manufacturing, the neighbourhood was home to a multicultural workforce of Italian and Portuguese immigrants. This social environment influenced Juncker's way of thinking and his ideology of integration and togetherness.
Juncker's father was heavily wounded during his service in the Wehrmacht at the Eastern Front, which left him visibly scarred. Throughout his life, Joseph Juncker was also a member of the LCGB Christian trade union, and he took his son to several union and party meetings, which impacted his son's political views even in his early days. Having come from a poor family, he made central to his political ideology the fight against social inequalities, and for equal opportunities and fairness for all people. Jean-Claude went to a Jesuit Boarding school close to the border of Belgium; as a schoolboy, Juncker negotiated and debated with the school's administrators on behalf of his classmates. Juncker was one of twelve children in a large household, where money was tight; he learned from a young age the importance of saving. This experience proved useful during his later role as Minister of Finance.Kopeinig, Margaretha. Jean-Claude Juncker: Der Europäer. Wien: Czernin, 2004.p.23ff
Career in national politics Early years
Following Juncker's graduation from the University of Strasbourg, he was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary. He later won election to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1984 and was immediately appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Jacques Santer as Minister of Labour. In the second half of 1985, Luxembourg held the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Communities, permitting Juncker to develop his European leadership qualities as chair of the Social Affairs and Budget Councils. It was here that Juncker's pro-Europe credentials first emerged.
At the 1989 election, Juncker was promoted to become Minister for Finance in the Santer-Poos II Government, a post traditionally seen as a rite of passage to the country's premiership. His eventual promotion to prime minister seemed at this time inevitable, with political commentators concluding that Santer was grooming Juncker as his successor. Juncker at this time also accepted the position of Luxembourg's representative on the 188-member Board of Governors of the World Bank. On 28 October 1989, while driving on the A6 motorway near Capellen, Juncker lost control of his vehicle, which struck and flew over a guardrail. He was seriously injured in the accident, spending two weeks in a coma and six months in a wheelchair. He has stated that the accident has caused him difficulty with balancing since.
Juncker's second election to Parliament, in 1989, saw him gain prominence within the European Union; Juncker chaired the Council of Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN), during Luxembourg's 1991 presidency of the Council of the European Communities, becoming a key architect of the Maastricht Treaty. Juncker was largely responsible for clauses on Economic and Monetary Union, the process that would eventually give rise to the euro, as well as in particular is credited with devising the "opt-out" principle for the UK to assuage its concerns. Juncker was himself a signatory to the Treaty in 1992, having, by that time, taken over as parliamentary leader of the Christian Social People's Party.
Juncker was re-elected to the Chamber in 1994, maintaining his ministerial role. With Santer ready to be nominated as the next president of the European Commission, it was only six months later that Grand Duke Jean approved the appointment of Juncker as prime minister on 20 January 1995, as part of a coalition with the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party. Juncker relinquished his post at the World Bank at this time but maintained his position as Minister for Finance.
Premiership (1995–2013)
Juncker's first term as prime minister was focused on an economic platform of international bilateral ties to improve Luxembourg's profile abroad, which included a number of official visits abroad. During one such visit, to Dublin in December 1996, Juncker successfully mediated a dispute over his own EU Economic and Monetary Union policy between French president Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Helmut Kohl. The press dubbed Juncker the "Hero of Dublin" for achieving an unlikely consensus between the two.
1997 brought the rotating presidency of the European Council to Luxembourg, during which time Juncker championed the cause of social integration in Europe, along with constituting the so-called "Luxembourg Process" for integrated European policy against unemployment. He also instigated the "Euro 11", an informal group of European finance ministers for matters regarding his Economic and Monetary Union ideals. For all of these initiatives, he was honoured with the Vision for Europe Award in 1998.
Juncker succeeded in winning another term as prime minister in the 1999 election, although the coalition with the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party was broken in favour of one with the Democratic Party. After the 2004 election, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party became the second largest party again, and Juncker again formed a coalition with them.
In 2005, Juncker inherited a second term as President of the European Council. Shortly after the expiration of his term came Luxembourg's referendum on ratification, and Juncker staked his political career on its success, promising to resign if the referendum failed. The final result was a 56.5% Yes vote on an 88% turnout. His continued allegiance to European ideals earned him the 2006 Karlspreis. In 2009, he denounced the lifting of the excommunication of controversial Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of Saint Pius X.
Juncker supported the 2011 military intervention in Libya. Juncker added that he wanted NATO to take control of coalition military efforts in Libya as soon as possible.
On 19 November 2012, RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg aired a story alleging that the former head of the State Intelligence Service (SREL), Marco Mille, had used a wristwatch to covertly record a confidential conversation with Juncker in 2008. According to the report, although Juncker had later found out about the recording, he took no action against Mille and allowed him to leave the service in 2010 for a position with Siemens. A transcript of the conversation was published by D'Lëtzebuerger Land, which highlighted the disorganised state of the secret service, mentioned links between Grand Duke Henri and MI6 and referred to the "Bommeleeër" scandal. On 4 December 2012, the Chamber of Deputies voted to set up a Parliamentary Inquiry into allegations of SREL misconduct including the illegal bugging of politicians, purchase of cars for private use and allegations of taking payments and favours in exchange for access to officials. The inquiry heard from witnesses who claimed that SREL had conducted six or seven illegal wiretapping operations between 2007 and 2009, as well as covert operations in Iraq, Cuba and Libya. The report concluded that Juncker had to bear political responsibility for SREL's activities, that he had been deficient in his control over the service and that he had failed to report all of the service's irregularities to the enquiry commission. Juncker himself denied wrongdoing.
After a seven-hour debate in the Chamber of Deputies on 10 July, the withdrawal of support from the Christian Social People's Party's coalition partner, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), forced Juncker to agree to new elections. Alex Bodry, President of LSAP and Chair of the Parliamentary Inquiry into SREL, declared his lack of confidence in Juncker, saying: "We invite the prime minister to take full political responsibility in this context and ask the government to intervene with the head of state to clear the path for new elections." Juncker tendered his resignation to the Grand Duke on 11 July. After the election, the CSV entered the opposition for the first time in 34 years and Juncker was succeeded on 4 December 2013 by Xavier Bettel.
Career in European politics
Presidency of the Eurogroup In 2004, the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers decided to replace the rotating chairmanship with a permanent president. Juncker was appointed as the first permanent president and assumed the chair on 1 January 2005. He was re-appointed for a second term in September 2006. Under the Lisbon Treaty, this system was formalised and Juncker was confirmed for another term. Juncker stepped down on 21 January 2013, when he was succeeded by Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
During his period as "Mr. Euro", the group was instrumental in negotiating and supervising bailout packages for the countries that faced bankruptcy: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus.