Frans Timmermans: EU leaders must take responsibility post-Brexit

Top commissioner blames EU buck-passing for contributing to Brexit.

First Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans said he was not surprised by the outcome of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and called on EU leaders to take responsibility for decisions made in Brussels and stop blaming European institutions.

“For twenty years, people have been told that the EU is flawed. Then at the end of the process, when people are asked whether they still want to vote to stay, no one should be surprised when the majority says no,” Timmermans said in an interview on TV program Nieuwsuur.

Click Here: All Blacks Rugby Jersey

Timmermans said buck-passing was a large part of the problem.

“Do you constantly say that everything in Brussels is not decided by us, or do you say: I sit at the table in Brussels and I am partly responsible for what has been decided,” Timmermans told Nieuwsuur.

Timmermans said Britain was welcome to stay in the EU, but the chances of it remaining a member of the bloc after the referendum were slim.

Brexit, Timmermans warned, was not isolated.

“It is about the middle class and the working class, which have lost control over their land, their lives, their destiny. It is not a typically British problem. We see that everywhere in Europe.”

While there is no need for a treaty change, according to Timmermans, the EU needs to focus on “concrete solutions” to European problems, such as youth unemployment, the refugee crisis and security issues.