European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker delivers his State of the Union speech | Patrick Hertzog/AFP via Getty Images Juncker calls for combining two EU presidencies into one Commission president makes surprise proposal for single powerful post.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed combining the Commission and Council presidencies — a move that would transform the EU leadership and consolidate authority in a single figure who would campaign for the post.

The proposal was part of Juncker's deeply personal pitch for the future of Europe in his State of the European Union speech on Wednesday, and could be accomplished without changes to the existing EU treaties.

"Europe would function better if we were to merge the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council," Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"Europe would be easier to understand if one captain was steering the ship."

Juncker noted that he would not be running for a second term in 2019, and stressed that the proposal was not intended as a criticism of Council President Donald Tusk, his counterpart since 2014.

His proposal would consolidate the leadership of the Commission, the EU's technocratic executive branch, with the relatively new position of Council president, who serves as the convenor and coordinator of the bloc's 28 (soon to be 27) heads of state and government.

Juncker closed his speech with a hope that EU citizens would wake up in 2019 with a single president at the helm.