EU Has Meddled Too Much, Admits Boss Juncker

European Union meddles too much in people's lives, according to its most senior official.

In a significant admission, Jean-Claude Juncker said a lot of the laws made in Brussels should have been left to national governments.

As a result the EU has lost popularity with ordinary people because they feel it over-regulates, the European Commission President said.

Asked about the rise of euroscepticism by a Tory MP, Mr Juncker said: "We are not blind. We are listening to those who are expressing their views.

"You are right in saying the European project has lost parts of its attractiveness."

He told backbencher Nigel Evans, who asked whether he recognised there was a problem, that the EU had been "wrong in over-regulating and interfering too much in the daily lives of our fellow citizens". 

Mr Juncker's candid comments came during a session of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

The EU boss said: "I think that one of the reasons that European citizens are stepping away from the European project is that we are interfering in too many domains of their private lives. And too many domains where the member states are better placed to take action and pass legislation …"

He insisted the Commission was trying to "do less" and that 80 pieces of European legislation had been scrapped on his watch.

The remarks are significant because Mr Juncker, the former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, is seen as old-fashioned federalist.

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Prime Minister David Cameron waged a public campaign to stop him getting the top job two years ago, saying Mr Juncker was too wedded to "ever closer union" in Europe.

With Britain's EU referendum in just two months' time and polls showing the result could be on a knife edge, Mr Juncker seems to be trying to show the EU is listening to voters' concerns.

Mr Evans told Sky: "It's nice and refreshing that he said it but people want him to deliver – the EU should not be regulating the power of hairdryers and vacuum cleaners.

"David Cameron has unwittingly ignited a debate about the EU. People want fundamental reform not just tinkering around the edges."

Euroscepticism is also on the rise in other countries – thought to be fuelled by the migration crisis and economic worries.

The Remain side is banking on support from high-profile figures who want Britain to stay in – the most important being Barack Obama, who arrives in the UK on Thursday.

The US President is expected to call publicly for Britain to stay in the bloc, after meeting Mr Cameron in Downing Street.

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It comes after eight former US treasury secretaries backed Remain in a letter to The Times today.

George Schultz, Larry Summers and five other ex-White House advisers who have served under Democratic and Republican presidents warned that leaving the EU would be a "risky bet" for the UK.

They wrote: "A strong Britain, inside the European Union, remains the best hope in our view for securing Britain's future, creating a more prosperous Europe and protecting a healthy and resilient global economy."

The intervention was criticised by Brexit campaigners.

Former defence secretary Liam Fox said: "The most important failure of the analysis is that they have failed to take into account the decline and failure of the European economy itself with a falling share of world trade, a smaller and less important destination for UK exports, and with chronic unemployment."