‘They’ve been in the sun TOO LONG’ British MEP ridicules claims Juncker ‘saved Greece’

British MEP Steven Woolfe responded to Mr Schinas’ comments claiming anyone who believes Jean-Claude Juncker has saved Greece «has been in the sun for too long».

The European Commission Chief spokesman praised the Luxembourgish politician for achieving a successful list of victories during his presidential term. 

But Mr Woolfe trashed his claim as he pointed out a number of reasons the Juncker Commission has failed so far.

He told Express.co.uk: «Greece has 40 percent youth unemployment, debt levels of €300 billion and the highest rate of suicides in the western world — whilst 35000 people have died in the Mediterranean, terrorists death squads killed hundreds across Europe and millions of illegal immigrants walked into EU unchecked. «Anyone who claims Jean-Claude Juncker has saved Greece, the euro and created a holistic migration policy has clearly been in the sun too long.»

In a recent interview Mr Schinas had claimed that the European Commission under Mr Juncker’s presidency has kept the eurozone «strong», increased employment rates of all member states to record-high levels and «saved Greece» among other things.

He said: “Saving Greece, keeping the euro and the eurozone strong and united, materialising an ambitious investment programme of enormous scale — that was missing from our economic and political mix;

“The intelligent application of the stability and growth back that brought all our economies back to growth and to record high employment. Anyone who claims Jean-Claude Juncker has saved Greece has clearly been in the sun too long Steven Woolfe “And the first meaningful attempt to create a truly holistic EU migration policy.

“These will be the legacy elements of this Commission.”

Mr Schinas’ comments come as the European Commission faces increasing criticism over failing to come to an agreement with Italy on a shared migration policy. 

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has criticised the «hypocrisy» at the centre of the European Union after crisis talks between the two sides failed last week. Senior officials from 12 member states met on Friday in Brussels to try and thrash out a deal over the migrant boat Diciotti, which the Italian government initially refused to accept.

However, the emergency meeting in Brussels ended without any agreement, according to the European Commission (EC).

The row erupted earlier last week when Italy refused to allow 150 migrants to disembark from a ship docked in Catania.

Italian officials have demanded that its EU partners agree to accept the migrants, with deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio even threatening to withhold budget contributions to the EU.

This triggered an escalating spat, with one European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein claiming that «threats in Europe do not lead anywhere».

Mr Winterstein said he did not «want to go into hypothetical scenarios» on what might happen if Italy doesn’t pay its £18bn contribution.