Share this page!

Dave Keating Profile picture
Twitter logo
Jan 17,, 7 tweets, 2 min read
There's been a lot of French media attention on the anti-abortion stance of Roberta Metsola, the centre-right Maltese MEP set to be voted European Parliament President tomorrow.

Here are 4 pieces of context I think are missing in the debate: (thread 1/7) elle.fr/Societe/News/R…
1) 'President' is a misnomer for this position. It's more like the Speaker of the House in the UK.

They chair debates and ceremonially represent the parliament to the other institutions. But the position comes with no real political power. (thread 2/7)
2) By agreement EP's 2 largest groups, centre-right EPP and centre-left S&D, split this position between them for the 5-year EP terms

David Sassoli from the left was president the past 2.5 years. Whoever the next president is, under the agreement it will be a conservative. (3/7)
...some left MEPs say to hell with this we should vote to blow up the gentlemans' agreement rather than have an anti-abortion president.

But given point 1 (political positions of the president are irrelevant), there's little appetite from most MEPs to start a war over this (4/7)
3) Abortion is illegal in Malta. It was part of their accession agreement that the EU would never interfere in Malta's national choice on this issue.

Maltese MEPs, from both left and right, abstain or vote against any EP resolution on abortion (5/7)
maltatoday.com.mt/news/ewropej/1…
4) Metsola is otherwise quite progressive. For instance she has championed LGBTQ rights. She has never been vocal about an anti-abortion stance. Her voting record against EP resolutions on abortion is consistent with all Maltese MEPs. (6/7)

From Malta Today:
It is understandable that some MEPs on the left are uncomfortable with the prospect of having a European Parliament president who has voted against abortion rights.

It is also understandable that, given all this context, most MEPs don't see this as a hill worth dying on. (7/7)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Dave Keating

Dave Keating Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @DaveKeating

Dave Keating Profile picture
Jan 18,
Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola has been elected, with 458 out of 690 votes, as the next president of the European Parliament.

"I want people to recapture a sense of beliefe and enthusiasm for our [European] project," she says, accepting the position. Image
"In the next years people across Europe will look to our institution for leadership & direction, while others will continue to test the limits of our democratic values and European principles. We must fight back against the anti-EU narrative that takes hold so easily and quickly" Image
"Disinformation and misinformation further amplified during the pandemic fuels easy cynicism and cheap solutions of nationalism, authoritarianism, protectionism, isolationism," says Metsola.

"These are a false illusion, offering no solutions." Image
Read 8 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
Dec 14, 2021
EU home affairs commissioner @YlvaJohansson says today’s proposal to revise the Schengen border code is designed to provide countries alternatives to internal EU border checks, for instance through greater police cooperation.

From now on they’ll have to fully justify checks.
Member states will still be able to request 6-month derogations to Schengen rules against internal border checks, says the home affairs commissioner.

But more justification will be needed, and Commission can in theory reject.
Member states would be able to point to the ‘instrumentalisation of migration’ (as happened at 🇵🇱🇧🇾 border) as a reason for introducing internal border checks.

But, VP Schinas clarifies, only if the EU Council has declared such an emergency.
Read 7 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
Dec 14, 2021
The European Commission will today propose a revision to the #Schengen Border Code - the system of passport-free travel within the EU.

We can expect some media coverage portraying this as an erosion of free movement. But that's missing the point. A thread (🧵1/7)
It's often been said that the euro currency was only done halfway: monetary union without fiscal union.

The Schengen code, developed at the same time, was also done only halfway: open internal borders without common management of external borders. (🧵2/7)
When people hear Schengen they first and foremost think of passport-free travel within the EU.

But the other part of the agreement, not very well followed through on, was the new common EU external border. (🧵3/7)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_…
Read 7 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
Dec 14, 2021
Once Greece’s EU accession opposition over use of the name “Macedonia” was resolved, the country still had a problem because Bulgaria objects to the idea that there is a “Macedonian” language.

They say it is a dialect(s) of Bulgarian. But, a breakthrough: ft.com/content/0c7242…
Is Macedonian a language? Linguists are split. As the old saying goes, “a language is a dialect with an army”

But this is going to be a big issue in Western Balkan accession, with concerns over the same language being translated/interpreted multiple times en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political…
The argument is Austrian, Flemish, Luxembourgish or other dialects aren’t registered as official EU languages, so we shouldn’t be registering Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian & Montenegrin all separately. Same for Bulgarian/Macedonian.

Problem is, what do you call the language?
Read 4 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
Dec 9, 2021
This part of Macron's speech has people talking here

It's often said the euro was set up only halfway, as monetary without fiscal union. Eurogroup was an effort to fix that

Schengen was also set up only halfway. Open internal borders but without EU control over external borders
I beat this analogy to death I know, but imagine if in🇺🇸 the border states were the only ones with authority over national borders.

Would people in New Jersey be comfortable with Arizona being in charge of their border security?

Change that to France & Poland and you've got 🇪🇺
The external borders of the US are run entirely by the federal government. There is constitutionally-guaranteed free movement between US states.

That the external borders are run collectively by all states, not just the border ones, gives everyone confidence to have open travel.
Read 5 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
Dec 9, 2021
President Macron speaking now outlining his intentions for France’s presidency of the Council of the EU, which starts 1 January.
Macron says he wants to set up a decision-making body for the Schengen Area like the Eurogroup for the Eurozone.

It would take decisions on emergency actions and Frontex missions at EU borders (a step toward EU external border management).
Macron says the suspension of EU budgetary rules for the pandemic needs to end, and EU states need to get back to convergence.

But “we can’t pretend like nothing’s happened”. Budget rules should be less stringent (a long time French ask).
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @DaveKeating has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @DaveKeating!

Read all threads by @DaveKeating

:(