BERLIN – Jean-Claude Juncker expected to congratulate Hillary Clinton.

Instead the president of the European Commission told a crowd gathered in Germany Wednesday for his annual speech commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall that Europe and the U.S. would remain partners after Donald Trump’s election as American president but called on the two continents to “rearrange their relationship.”

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Juncker said that Europe, “the smallest continent,” needed to stand together to meet the challenges it faces, namely the refugee crisis, economic difficulties in the euro area and the need for a different defense system.

“The European Union is the only way to stand our ground in tomorrow’s world,” he said.

The Commission president described Europe as a shrinking continent, pointing to a decline in the number of citizens even as the global population expands.

“If I didn’t come from Luxembourg, I would talk about small state mentality,” he joked at the beginning of his speech.

Juncker praised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her stance on refugees and said solidarity was “part of Europe’s DNA.” He urged European countries not to reject people fleeing war and destruction but said more needed to be done to protect Europe’s external borders, including greater investment in Africa to fight the causes of migration.

However, he denied priorities had changed since Tuesday’s U.S. election. “It was always obvious Americans would not always be there to protect the European continent,” he said.