Thread by @tepsaeu

🗣️ Our event is about to begin!

Join us and @EP_LUXEMBOURG as we discuss "Solidarity In Action and the Future of Europe" with @AsselbornJean, @katarinabarley, @iwiseler, and Guido Lessing, with the presence of the book's co-editor @_PaulSchmidt

👉 tepsa.eu/solidarity-in-…

As always we will be tweeting some highlights from the trilingual event taking place in English, German, and Luxembourgish

We start by highlighting @_PaulSchmidt, co-editor of the book we are discussing: "Solidarity in Action and the Future of Europe: Views from the Capitals"
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"With solidarity, we are talking about solidarity among peoples and a true common value, especially from the social democrat position"

- @katarinabarley MEP, Vice-President of the @Europarl_EN

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"The most important factor in solidarity is tackling common aims together"

- Guido Lessing, author of the chapter of "Solidarity in Action and the Future of Europe: Views from the Capitals" focusing on Luxembourg

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In the book there are articles about the Member States and the EU, and how #COVID19 has affected these: can we say that each MS has its own definition of solidarity?

The first major question to @_PaulSchmidt: "Solidarity is one of THE basic European values"

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"There are national views of #solidarity, and history and geography have a considerable effect on how you define your values: from the Greek, Austrian, Finnish, or Luxembourgish perspectives, these terms mean different things"

- @_PaulSchmidt on the European diversity

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"There are countries with a particular history that very much see themselves as underdogs: in #Poland, a country which has suffered so much, #solidarity with the EU is wanted by much of the population"

- @_PaulSchmidt

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"In Ireland, there has been a very strong feeling about solidarity since #Brexit after the EU27 united in negotiations. In France there is a great demand for European solidarity, whereas others see this more as a desire for 'French' European solidarity"

- @_PaulSchmidt

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"I wanted to see what was happening on the #IrishBorder: I met people who lived along the border, who had sorted out their own agreements to live with the new status quo"

- @katarinabarley MEP speaks about her post-Brexit trip to Ireland to investigate the NI protocol

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"See the legacy of The Troubles was an emotional experience: a lady came up and said 'you're a German politician and you have visited us. No one from Westminster has come to visit us'"

- @katarinabarley MEP speaks about her experience with the reality of #Brexit

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"For Austria, as a small or middling sized country very dependent on the Single Market and import/export, European solidarity is a very important thing"

- @_PaulSchmidt from @oegfe

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"We have a very good understanding with Austria. Many Afghan refugees are in Austria, who were welcomed before @sebastiankurz, who has more and more made steps against European solidarity. This was bad for Europe when Austria had the Presidency in 2018"

- @AsselbornJean

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"In all of the different groups in the @Europarl_EN, we have many different trends. Within your own group, one is always fighting to be able to push for one's own party line"

- @iwiseler MEP on internal discussions of the European Parliament

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"For politicians, policy discussions are often about power; but for the people, it is often about fear. We need to clarify #migration and the European level, and also discuss the situation in #Belarus"

- @iwiseler discussing the migration debate in Europe

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We now have a short Q&A, starting with a student from @uni_lu: "How can we strengthen EU solidarity in a context where Hungary and Poland are so set against common EU values like #LGBTIQ+ rights?"

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Another question: "How do we combat the 'not in my back yard' attitude of many Europeans when it comes to #ClimateAction?"

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"The move against the #LGBTIQ+ community in the East is a decisive move to divide us: in Poland there is a movement against feminism, against LGBTIQ."

- @katarinabarley MEP responding to our first question

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"We can exercise pressure, bring discrimination matters to the European Court of Justice, we can strengthen civil society"

- @katarinabarley discusses methods to protect fundamental rights in European Member States like #Poland and #Hungary

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"I have always been aware of a split in Europe between those who aren't allowed to progress as they want to: after WWII the West could develop, and the East was held back. I always felt this was unjust."

- @iwiseler MEP

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"You have to understand WHY people behave as they do, and believe what they do. But no one can be allowed to attack fundamental European values and the fundamental rights of Europe's citizens"

- @iwiseler MEP on protecting #LGBTIQ+ rights in #Hungary and #Poland

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Another question from the audience: "countries like Greece, Croatia, Poland, on the external borders are making threats against refugees - do you think the Union can show solidarity and uphold values?"

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"What would be a fair distribution system for #refugees across the EU? Surely there must be a coalition of the willing to push this through and maintain our values of human personal dignity. So far we are failing our values"

Another challenging question from the audience

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"It is not the @EU_Commission, not the @Europarl_EN, that leads the way here. It is the @EUCouncil, full of Ministers and politicians. Securitisation and fear of terrorism dominates, values are not discussed so much"

- @AsselbornJean, Minister of Foreign Affairs 🇱🇺

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At the end of our event, the moderator asks young people in the audience to define solidarity: "solidarity is empathy, treating people how you would like to be treated"

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And so thanks to our speakers @AsselbornJean, @katarinabarley MEP, @iwiseler MEP, Guido Lessing, and @_PaulSchmidt

/ENDS

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