One can't allow blind loyalty to a friendship to lead one away from acting in the public interest. If Martin [Schulz] were to propose something that was totally absurd, our friendship would not prevent me from doing the opposite.

The will of the British people must now be put into effect as quickly as possible. Under Article 50 of the EU Treaty the UK must leave the European Union within two years at the latest.

I would have thought that they [Boris Johnson and Nigel Farag] would have had a plan,instead of developing a plan they are leaving the boat.

Decisions can only be reached in Europe if France and Germany agree.

It is not acceptable that European Union countries are divided into those who give and those who take.

We must also take this opportunity to learn from the situation [of Brexit], just as we learned from the refugee and debt crises.

I have changed the focus of the work of my Commission so that we no longer concern ourselves with trivial details and concentrate on the key issues instead. By doing that, we met a large number of the legitimate demands made by the British people. The Commission really did do everything it could to create the conditions for a positive campaign.