FLORENCE — The EU’s true believers went on the front foot Friday at a ‘State of the Union‘ conference in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, organized by the European University Institute.

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The conference is being held in the shadow of French presidential elections that have put the populist right-wing within a step of the Élysée Palace, and amid a growing fight with the U.K. government over Brexit negotiations.

Jean-Claude Juncker delivered his speech in French, a deliberate choice he said, because “slowly and slowly English is losing importance in Europe.” He added “France has elections this Sunday and I want the French people to understand what I am saying about the importance of the EU.”

Juncker was quick to tackle Brexit war of words between Brussels and London.

“It is no small event (Brexit). Of course we will negotiate with our British friends in full transparency. But there should be no doubt whatsoever about the idea that it is the EU that is abandoning the UK. It is the opposite in fact. It is the U.K. that is abandoning the EU.”

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani offered his full support to EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and attempted to tone down the verbal joust with London.

“There is no ill will towards them. No one wants to interfere in the election of the U.K,” he said. Tajani said the EU simply wants a stable government it can negotiate with. “It would be detrimental to everyone were we not capable of reaching an agreement,” Tajani said.

Juncker also lamented the never-ending stream of criticisms that have hit the EU in recent years.

“This valley of tears in which we are all criticized and torn to shreds” is all the more difficult to face he said because “the rest of the world admires Europe. He went on to express pride at cutting 100 legislative proposals a year from the European Commission’s work book.

Italy’s foreign minister Angelino Alfano took a swipe at the U.K. and spoke movingly about being the first generation in his family to live only in peace time.

“The European Union has to be our greatest pride,” Alfano said adding “I am aware of the privilege of what it means to be a European citizen. Peace has a name as far as I am concerned: it is called the European Union”

Solve problems instead of attacking populists

Antonio Tajani followed Alfano with a forceful speech designed to rally the EU’s true believers gathered in the Palazzo Vecchio.

Tajani called for an EU that breaks out of its Brussels bubble and “responds to our citizens’ needs.” He said that Europe’s political center should not attack populist parties but “understand why people vote for them, and solve their problems.”

For that Tajani suggested a European FBI-type anti-terror agency and an EU that can tax citizens directly instead of relying almost entirely on national governments to pass funds through to them. “We have to change the way we conceive our budget,” Tajani said, calling for a new focus on unemployment.

Look at Africa as if we are Africans

“I am in favor of investing to promote growth” in Africa, he said. “Think of the desert eating up fertile land because of climate change forcing people to move in biblical proportions.”

“We have to look at Africa as if we are Africans, not as neo-colonialists,” Tajani said. He warned “If we do not solve the problem of migration at its roots, we will face millions and million of people who will travel from the south to the north of the world,” and Europe will “turn the Mediterranean into a graveyard.”