Hello and welcome to EURACTIV's EU Tweets of the Week.
Von der Leyen still dodges the blame,
Borrell’s Russia excuses are incredibly lame
and Luxembourg tax scandal is EU’s sh ame.
On Wednesday Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen
went to the European Parliament
to face the music over the Article 16 blunder.
“The bottom line is that mistakes were made
in the process leading up to the decision
and I deeply regret that,” she said.
And I can report that as a result of this non-apology, tweets were sent.
By my count, this is the third time VDL has used
the passive "mistakes-were-made" defense,
said Berlaymonster.
My steaks were made
chipped in American EU Dude.
But things got worse and it seems
von der Leyen still has some catching up to do
when it comes to improving communication,
said Anne Gellinek.
She took no personal responsibility for a Northern Ireland
breakdown and when MEP Jörg Meuthen
called for her resignation,
she left the hall to give interviews.
Not a good look, Ursula.
God, said Diego Velazquez,
the debate is basically about her!
What disrespect.
She hasn't left the plenary.
The plenary has been left, snarked Jimbo Jones.
This week Josep Borell also found himself in hot water.
In case you missed the whole saga,
MEP Assistant summed it up thus.
Yep, that’s pretty much all you need to know.
Borrell himself tweeted:
My visit to Moscow highlighted that Russia
does not want to seize the opportunity
to have a more constructive dialogue with the EU.
This is regrettable and we will have to draw the consequences.
Read my blog post!
Mate, desperate much!
Rikard Jozwiak had three observations after watching Borrell:
One, can MEPs please stop talking
about NordStream2 with him?
He can't stop it, Germany can.
Two, seems he was better prepared for this debate
than his presser in Russia and
and three, he could have been a bit more humble
and admit that mistakes were made.
Nice call-back!
With more than 70 MEPs calling for his resignation,
EU Council President Charles Michel
expressed his confidence in High Rep Borrell.
He’ll be packing his desk
by the end of the week then, quipped Sam Morgan.
Europe, which just sent Josep Borrell
to Moscow bare-handed,
is looking to fire someone else into space,
remarked Dave Clark.
In news that will shock
exactly no one,
it turns out elites from around the world
have used their companies in Luxembourg
to pay fewer taxes.
Who knew?
They include Magic Johnson, Tiger Woods,
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
And not just celebrities,
at least 279 of the 2,000 global billionaires listed by Forbes
continue to use tax havens
to avoid paying their fair share, tweeted Corinna Cerruti.
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
is a founding member of the EU,
but it's also a rogue state,
enabling massive corruption throughout the trading bloc;
while Cyprus and Malta will sell any corrupt robber-baron
EU citizenship,
it's Luxembourg that leads in laundering their money,
noted Cory Doctorow.
The real scandal is that this is happening in Europe.
Luxembourg is operating as a tax haven,
yet it is absent from the EU tax blacklist
as it excludes European member states,
noted Chiara Putaturo.
And that's it for another week.
Join me again next Friday
for more tax and attacks
in the Brussels Bubble Twittersphere.