In calling for a more democratic European Union while at the same time pushing for deeper "under the radar" integration, Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker risked contradiction, MEP Alfred Sant has said. 

Reacting to Mr Juncker's State of the Union address to MEPs earlier this week, former prime minister Dr Sant argued that the EU risked losing sight of the priority of "ensuring consolidation by combating through political means the strong divergences" that existed within the EU. 

"It happened in the past, it can happen again," Dr Sant said. 

READ: 10 key ideas from Juncker's State of the European Union speech

Mr Juncker used his speech to call for various reforms which could take place without amending existing treaties. Among those changes are consolidating the EU Council and Commission presidencies into one post, creating an EU finance and economics minister and making more foreign policy decisions subject to qualified majority voting, rather than unanimity. 

His speech veered away from the downbeat tone of the previous year's, when the EU was still shell-shocked by the Brexit vote and member states economies were still in the doldrums. 

"We have swung from the depths of last year’s frustration and disappointment to a strong optimism," Dr Sant acknowledged.

"However, this is leading to contradictions as old integrative dreams for Europe re-emerge."