Watching the European collapse over the past 6 years has been mostly an exercise in futility, during which unelected bureaucrats throw everything at an unsolvable problem just to maintain the "dream" a little longer, punctuated with moments of sheer, delightful absurdity. This was one of those moments.
After yesterday's shocking Dutch referendum outcome, in which a vast majority of local voters rejected a Ukraine-European Union treaty on closer political and economic ties, seen by many as an indication of "Euroskepticism", moments ago European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker explained how that made him feel. According to Reuters, "he was saddened by the outcome."
"The president is sad," European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a regular news briefing.
This is the same president who was caught lying repeatedly during the many years of the Greek crisis, and chalked it off to "when it gets serious, you have to lie."
And, just to confirm that European rules are made to be broken, he said the referendum would not affect the wider EU deal on closer ties with Ukraine and it was up to the Dutch government to analyze the outcome of Wednesday's vote.
"The Commission remains strongly committed to the development of its relations with Ukraine," he said.
Asked whether the Commission still intended to propose liberalization of visa requirements for Ukrainians this month, he noted that Juncker had previously proposed this.
Meanwhile, we wonder just how "sad" Junkcer will be as the Euroskeptic wave leads to a new government in the Netherlands, followed by all the other states swept up by the recent refugee crisis, and ultimately culminating with the victory of nationalist presidents in the upcoming European presidential elections.