I am in favor of the European institutions being led for the next two-and-a-half years as they have been thus far. We need stability.

In politics, there are different categories of friendship. My friendship with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, for example .

I'm ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but I want to be serious ... I am for secret, dark debates.

I'm not deaf and the Commission isn't operating in a parallel world of legal texts.

[Boris]Johnson, [Nigel] Farage, they are retro-nationalists, not patriots. Patriots don't abandon ship when the going gets tough. They stay on board.

I was never presented with the details as far as the collective bargaining system is Greece. I am in favor of a normal system without giving the labour minister the right to extend the results to extend the result of the collective bargaining to the whole of the real economy. The government has to make sure that the results will not harm the situation of small and medium enterprises.

The outcome of the referendum does not affect those of my officials who have British nationality, since they work for Europe and not for the UK. They have made a major contribution to our common European project, and I will continue to count on their talent and commitment.