The ‘Out’ campaign in the EU referendum has seized on comments made by Jean-Claude Juncker where he appears to say that Britain doesn’t need the European Union. He ‘appears’ to say it in the sense that the key word is rather muffled – and his team are insisting he said Britain does need the EU.
You can listen to his comments in the European Parliament below, and it’s worth listening as it’s not clear whether he said ‘personally I don’t think that Britain needs the European Union’ or ‘personally I do think that Britain needs the European Union’.
https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/jean-claude-juncker-says-that-britain-does-not-need-the-eu
His aides are insisting that he meant that Britain does need the EU. For what it’s worth, it sounds more like ‘do’ than ‘don’t’, but it is complicated by paralinguistic features, including his tone and the way he stands as he says it, which make him look as though he’s offering an aside that contradicts his previous assertion that the EU needs the UK.
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