🇪🇺President @VonDerLeyen and High Rep @JosepBorrellF announce, "for the first time ever, the European Union will finance purchase and deliver military equipment to a country that is under attack."
"This is a watershed moment."
President @VonDerLeyen also announces that *all* EU airspace is being closed to all Russian airlines. Any plane: chartered or commercial.
"Our airspace will be closed to every Russian plane, and that includes the private jets of oligarchs."
Third - the EU is banning Russian state propaganda TV channel #RussiaToday and #Sputnik.
"They will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify #Putin's war and to sew division in our union."
And lastly, the sanctions applied to #Russia will be extended to #Belarus, which is "complicit in the vicious attack against #Ukraine."
"This will also avoid any risk of circumvention of our measures against Russia," President von der Leyen says.
On #refugees, 🇪🇺President @VonDerLeyen says she is proud of the Europeans who have travelled to the border to help the arrivals.
"We welcome with open arms those Ukrainians who have to flee from Putin's bombs"
The EU will send assistance to the Eastern member states to help.
@JosepBorrellF, who will chair a meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers starting now expected to last all night, says "Ukrainian forces are fiercely fighting back and showing a heroic resistance to this invasion"
Ukraine asked for #SWIFT & arms he says, and now 🇪🇺 is doing both
"This afternoon #Putin has announced that he's putting Russian nuclear deterrent forces on high alert," says Borrell.
G7 foreign ministers just had an emergency meeting on this.
"I will today propose to use the European Peace Facility for 2 emergency assistance measures: to finance supply of lethal material to Ukrainian army, and urgently needed fuel, protective equipment and medical supplies."
"Another taboo [that 🇪🇺doesn't supply arms] has fallen"
These 🇪🇺 military taboos are now falling because these are unprecedented times, EU High Rep Borrell says. "It's the first time in history" EU sends arms in conflict.
"We are living through pestilence and war, like in the biblical times."
"Putin doesn't only want to conquer the land, he also wants to capture the spirit of the people with toxic messages and lies"
"The Kremlin and its supporters are engaged in a massive disinformation campaign in Ukraine, in our neighborhood and in the EU itself." So EU will ban RT
"Today we're taking a crucial step to turn off the tap for Russian information manipulation in Europe by banning #RussiaToday and #Sputnik from broadcasting in the EU," says EU High Rep Borrell. "We are killing the snake on its neck"
Will Putin turn off the gas tap in response?
Germany's renouncement of its decades-long policy of not sending arms to conflict zones yesterday enabled this unprecedented announcement of EU arming Ukraine today.
Now ministers have to work through the night to figure out how to do this under EU founding treaty constraints.
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Breaking: The European Commission is opening an 'excessive deficit procedure' against France for the first time.
This should have happened long ago, but France's power in Brussels for years made the Commission look away.
How will this impact the 🇫🇷legislative election?
Procedure also started for 🇮🇹🇵🇱🇧🇪🇭🇺🇲🇹🇸🇰
Romania currently the only country already under the excessive deficit procedure. Commission announces it will stay there.
The rules are meant to prevent a repeat of the 💶debt crisis, making countries tighten fiscal policy or face fines.
🇫🇷 had the 2nd-highest deficit (5.5%) in🇪🇺 in 2023, after 🇮🇹
For years EU officials openly acknowledged that France was getting special treatment, with 🇪🇺President Juncker famously explaining why France wasn't being put under the procedure by saying: "Parce que c'est la France"
The problem with the first option is you need to take the metro between train stations in Paris to switch, whereas in Lyon it's the same station
But...
🇪🇸Renfe & 🇫🇷SNCF don't have a ticketing agreement, so there's no way to get the preferred option as a combined ticket.
It doesn't show up on either website (Renfe won't even let you choose Brussels as a destination). Even 3rd party sites like SNCB Intl & Trainline can't show it
Tonight is the first semi-final for #Eurovision2023 in 🇬🇧Liverpool.
It's happening on the 25th anniversary of the 1998 contest hosted in 🇬🇧Birmingham, a transformative year that marks the boundary between the 'old' and 'new' Eurovision.
In 1998 Dana International became the first trans (and 1st openly LGBT) person to win the ESC.
Following the '98 contest it was decided to make two major rule changes: countries no longer had to sing in their national language and they weren't required to use an orchestra.
Those changes transformed what had become a stale archaic-looking contest in '90s into the explosion of spectacle in 2000s - helped also by the entry of enthusiastic Eastern European countries unable to participate during Communism.
The bookies have 🇸🇪Sweden as the favourite to win, followed by 🇫🇮Finland and 🇫🇷France.
But Sweden's odds have gotten worse since rehearsals started.
The singer, #Loreen, already won for 🇸🇪 in 2012 with Euphoria, a global hit hitting number one on the charts in 21 countries.
Among fans, I keep hearing "I predict Sweden will win but I don't want it to win". People like the song but think a 🇸🇪win is too predictable. 🇸🇪has dominated the contest for 2 decades.
If 🇸🇪win again they'll match Ireland's record for most wins - 7.
As the 🇬🇧#Coronation takes place in London, here's some fun facts about monarchies around the world.
I find Americans have the mistaken impression that Europe has many monarchies. In fact, excluding microstates, there are just 8 - and only 3 have been there more than 200 years.
There are actually more monarchies in Asia than in Europe.
The world has 16 kings, and only one queen (🇩🇰). Then there are 4 princes, 3 sultans, 2 emirs, 1 pope and 1 emperor (🇯🇵).
There are 4 types of monarchies remaining in Europe:
🇬🇧British
🇸🇪🇩🇰🇳🇴Scandinavian
🇳🇱🇧🇪🇱🇺Low Countries
🇪🇸Iberian
🇻🇦🇱🇮🇦🇩🇲🇨Microstates
This map shows when other European monarchies ended (most give the year of national independence from a imperial monarchy)