Hello and welcome to EU tweets of the week with me Jack Parrock, filling in for Jennifer Baker
This week it’s Interpretive dance in Parliament is just pure cringe, when it comes to NATO,
Finland is no longer on the fringe, and Ukraine in Eurovision delivers an emotional twinge.
Our sponsor this week is ALDE, to find out how ALDE aims to put citizens at
the centre of the debate on Europe’s future and make their voice heard, follow them online
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Right…
The Conference on the Future of Europe ended on Monday (9 May), but a group of politicians
want the citizens’ panels that were at its heart to become a permanent practice at the
#EU level as reported by EURACTIV.
The closing ceremony was quite something though.
Laurence Farreng tweeted this video of beginning of the closing event of the Conference on
the future of Europe - under the sign of culture with the choreography "Danse l'Europe".
"You can keep your May 9 parade on Red Square Putin" said James Crisp - put this in your
pipe and smoke it!
And my take was - Why does "interpretive dance" always look exactly the same?
Just loads of arms waving around and lungeing around...
Outside of the dancing, stuff did actually happen at the closing of the conference.
French President Emmanuel Macron pitched a proposal on Monday for a new “political European
community” that would allow Ukraine and others currently outside of the EU framework
to become more closely involved.
Someone ring the two speed Europe bell immediately, I say!
Jon Worth wasn’t at all impressed.
Macron’s EU ideas feel like an undergraduate EU politics essay.
Some intellectual coherence, but crumble on any contact with reality he tweeted.
Burn!
Anyway - 13 EU countries were having none of the conference’s recommendations
- especially the ones which would require changing the EU’s treaties.
Thank you for democratic debate & inspiring ideas at Conference, but all of us are against
unconsidered & premature treaty change.
Europe must deliver real results.
No time for institutional discussions!
That was Denmark’s EU representation’s tweet but the other countries also posted
that statement.
"I like the smell of democratic experiments in the morning" tweeted DG meme.
Now moving on.
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay.”
according to a statement from the country's PM and President, which paves the way for NATO accession
reported Rosie Birchard.
"It reverses decades of military non-alignment and is an enormous shift in Europe’s security
landscape brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine" she said.
Heidi Viljamaa tweeted that Previously ONLY 6% of Russia's borders aligned with NATO countries.
But int the near future there’s 100% growth as Finland's 1380 km border joins the Alliance.
More than all other NATO countries combined.
Paul van der Meer pointed out that Sweden will make a similar statement in the coming days.
""Well Done Putin!" he said.
And Le Chou broke the news that the Finnish Government supports NATO’s bid to join Finland.
Is Russia still calling for the Finlandization of Ukraine?
Asked Dimitar Bechav in reference to the Kremlin’s prior statements about how Ukraine’s security
should be arranged.
And Carl Blidt reckons it’s reasonable to expect a quick “Finlandization” of the
security policy choice of Sweden.
And brace yourselves!!!
It's #EurovisionAgain!
With today's Brief, @EURACTIV kicks off its special coverage of the #Eurovision2022 - you
got that right - said our Gerard Fortuna.
#Ukraine got through Tuesday's #Eurovision semi-final tweeted superfan Dave Keating.
Bookies have them as favourite to win on Saturday with 50% chance - but the juries are instructed
not to vote for political reasons.
Inevitably, the war is looming large over this year.
Ukraine’s entry Kalush Orchestra, told Benjamin Butterworth they’re doing it to make their
friends killed by Russia proud.
‘If I win, I’ll have the feeling that I’ve done everything possible for my country" they said.
And while there is this serious angle because of the war, remember, it’s all meant to
be fun.
IT'S FINALLY TIME FOR #EUROVISION tweeted this fan account with a meme perfectly depicting
how the rest of the world sees Europe during this week.
For a fact, if you hate Eurovision, you’re a bad person. That's my opinion anyway.
Join Jennifer next week, for more snarks and larks in the Brussels Twittersphere.
Ta ra.