We will never have a united states of Europe: Juncker

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said there is never going to be a "united states of Europe," and that the EU needed to concentrate on "big issues" such as deepening the economic and monetary union and introducing an energy union and digital market.

"We cannot build Europe against nations, we will never have a united states of Europe. We don't want some mix with our differences to disappear," Juncker said Monday at an event assessing 100 days of his having been in office.

He said that there was no example for Europe to follow or to give: "We need to build Europe together with all these nations, those who can really understand Europe," said Juncker.

He underlined it was important for the EU to concentrate on big issues.

"We need to deepen our economic and monetary union for a very simple reason -- the monetary union we have is not optimal. We have an independent central bank, but we do not have a European government, so we need regulations and rules to replace the European government that does not exist," Juncker said.

He also mentioned the energy union and digital market as "big issues" the Commission should concentrate on.

Juncker said he was concerned over the EU spending too much on importing gas and oil which threatens the future of industry.

"If we could interconnect our networks in Europe, we would be able to save 40 billion euros (42.97 billion U.S. dollars), while today we spend 1 billion euros a day and our electricity prices are 40 percent higher than in the United States," he said.

Juncker said introducing a digital market in Europe would be a source of income for Europe, and lead to the creation of 1.5 or 2 million jobs in the next five years.

Juncker took office on Nov. 1, 2014. He served as the prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 until 2013. From 2004 until 2013, he was also the president of the Eurogroup. Endit