From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 04:47 PM

One for Nigel. BBC News website.

The president of the European Commission has said claims he wants to create a European "superstate" are "total nonsense".
Jean-Claude Juncker said some Britons wrongly saw him as a "stupid, stubborn federalist".
He was responding to a speech about Brexit by UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Mr Johnson said the EU wanted to create an "overarching European state" and that integration was deepening...

...Asked about the foreign secretary's remarks, Mr Juncker replied: "Some in the British political society are against the truth, pretending that I am a stupid, stubborn federalist, that I am in favour of a European superstate.
"I am strictly against a European superstate. We are not the United States of America, we are the European Union, which is a rich body because we have these 27, or 28, nations.
"The European Union cannot be built against the European nations, so this is total nonsense."

This from the same Mr Juncker who, in his state of the union address 2017 was calling for a single Finance Minister for the EU, and a European Monetary Fund:

Europe has to be able to act quicker and more decisively, and this also applies to theEconomic and Monetary Union.

The euro area is more resilient now than in years past. We now have the European Stabilisation Mechanism (ESM). I believe the ESM should now progressively graduate into a European Monetary Fund which, however, must be firmly anchored in the European Union's rules and competences. The Commission will make concrete proposals for this in December.

We need a European Minister of Economy and Finance: a European Minister that promotes and supports structural reforms in our Member States. He or she can build on the work the Commission has been doing since 2015 with our Structural Reform Support Service. The new Minister should coordinate all EU financial instruments that can be deployed if a Member State is in a recession or hit by a fundamental crisis.

I am not calling for a new position just for the sake of it. I am calling for efficiency. The Commissioner for economic and financial affairs ; ideally also a Vice-President ; should assume the role of Economy and Finance Minister. He or she should also preside the Eurogroup.

The European Economy and Finance Minister must be accountable to the European Parliament.

We do not need parallel structures. We do not need a budget for the Euro area but a strong Euro area budget line within the EU budget.

I am also not fond of the idea of having a separate euro area parliament.

The Parliament of the euro area is this European Parliament.

That looks to me like 'federalist' ideals.