Juncker in full health, EU says, after 'stumble' photo

Thomson Reuters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission dismissed suggestions on Tuesday that the head of the EU executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, was in poor health after pictures were published that appeared to show him stumbling at a reception in Vienna.

"Photos sometimes lie, as they do in this case," deputy chief spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told reporters in answer to a question about the Commission president's health.

"The president is in full good health and in full throttle since yesterday evening," she said of the 64-year-old's presence at a meeting in the Austrian capital with African leaders.

Saying she had just spoken to him, Andreeva said: "He's all good."

She added that Juncker, as he himself has said, sometimes has pain walking as a result of serious injuries sustained in a car accident 30 years ago.

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald, editing by Larry King)

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