German president proposes pausing European integration, says goals should be discussed

German President Joachim Gauck deems European integration needs a break.

As reported by Censor.NET, he said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper translated by Liga.

"We have created an excellent concept with the E.U. It was a blueprint of the world that previous generations could not even dream of," the president said noting that the progress was sometimes so rapid that not all the citizens were willing or able to follow the plan.

According to Gauck, subsidiarity principle should be taken into account so that the countries will be able to independently tackle all the issues that can be solved at the national level.

"So, we need to think about a pause providing us the time to discuss what goals and at what rate we want to achieve," the German president said.

Gauck believes this break should be used to restore public support which is now very low. The president also stresses that many E.U. policy opponents live in the countries that receive considerable financial support from the European Union.

"One of the most important tasks of the European politics is to take into account the opinions of skeptics and doubters," Gauck said.