Dave Keating Profile picture
May 30, 2022 12 tweets 9 min read Read on X
Leaders now arriving for the #EUCO summit in Brussels.

The big question journalists will be asking: are we really close to a Russian #OilEmbargo agreement today, and what are the details of this compromise?
Entering #EUCO, 🇪🇺President @VonDerLeyen pours cold water on the rumours we are close to a #RussianOil ban deal.

"My expectations are low that it will be solved in the next 48 hours, but I'm confident that thereafter there will be a possibility."
Now entering: the man of the hour.

Will #Orban drop his veto on the EU's #RussianOil embargo today?
#Orban also squashes the #OilEmbargo compromise rumours: "There is no agreement at all" he tells journalists.

"I have just got the text now and there is no agreement of course"
Orban says he can't accept compromise text now on the table, but idea to exempt Russian oil coming via pipeline is "a good approach"

"But we need a guarantee that in case of an accident with a pipeline going through 🇺🇦, we have to have the right to get 🇷🇺 oil from other sources"
#Orban says if there's no #OilEmbargo agreement it's fault of Commission's "irresponsible behavior" for putting forward the proposal without MS agreement or an impact assessment.

"The responsibility of not having an agreement today will be on the shoulders of the Commission"
#Orban is asked to respond to criticism that he is behaving as "#Putin's puppet" by vetoing the EU's #RussianOil embargo.

"Fake news," he responds.
(In the past days I have also privately heard this complaint about Commission's proposal being premature from Western diplomats, one saying President @VonDerLeyen succumbed to 🇵🇱🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹 pressure.

Particular discontent that Commission still hasn't conducted an impact assessment)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sounded more positive about the prospect of a deal today as he entered #EUCO.

“One should not praise the day before the evening...but everything I hear sounds as if there could be a consensus.”

Is he just out of the loop?
🇱🇻Latvian PM #Kariņš says he'll tell #Orban to think not about technical details of an oil embargo but about the big picture.

"It's only money. The Ukrainians are playing with their lives. If we get bogged down only thinking about money, what is the sense of our union?"
@EUCOPresident Michel also enters #EUCO sounding a positive note: "We made progress in recent hours on the topic and I hope we'll be able to take a decision [at this summit]"

Quite a different message from Commission President @VonDerLeyen.
#EUCO summit discussions starting now.

The future effects of an EU embargo on #RussianOil are still very unknown and no impact assessment has been conducted.

Here's a backgrounder article from me about all the uncertainty surrounding this issue: energymonitor.ai/policy/interna…

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More from @DaveKeating

Apr 25
🇫🇷President @EmmanuelMacron's much previewed speech on the future of 🇪🇺 is about to start.

Watch live with English interpretation here: youtube.com/live/tkDUSYHoK…
#Macron opens his speech by saying this. isa follow-up to his speech about Europe 7 years ago. He says he wanted to see more progress by now.

But he notes: "European sovereignty - a term that may have seemed very French 7 years ago" has now been embraced.
Macron says the EU has weathered several crises over the past 7 years, including #Brexit (plus Covid & Russia).

But he says the union remained strong in the face of these challenges, and as a result, nobody speaks about leaving the union anymore.
Read 15 tweets
Aug 3, 2023
Allow me a little #CrossBorderRail rant.

Barcelona-Brussels should be an appealing train route. At 9 hours it's a little over the cusp of what people are willing to endure, but it's doable.

However the lack of cooperation between 🇫🇷&🇪🇸 makes it very difficult. 🧵1/6 Image
There are 2 ways to do it in 9 hours:

🚄1: 🇫🇷TGV BCN-PAR, 🇧🇪Thalys PAR-BXL €288
🚄2: 🇪🇸Renfe BCN-Lyon, 🇫🇷TGV Lyon-BXL €181

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
Read 10 tweets
May 9, 2023
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.

Birmingham was the last show of the old guard.
Read 6 tweets
May 8, 2023
It's #Eurovision week!

Yesterday the delegations arrived on the #TurquoiseCarpet, and tomorrow night the first semi-final will air around the world.

As promised, here's a thread about this year's acts. 🧵1/17
youtube.com/live/2M0DtRFx3…
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. Image
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.
Read 17 tweets
May 6, 2023
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. Image
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 (🇯🇵). Image
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) Image
Read 10 tweets
May 5, 2023
In 2 days, #Eurovision2023 week begins in Liverpool with delegations arriving on the #TurquoiseCarpet

Surely the most important thing happening in🇬🇧this weekend😉

I'll be there covering. Here's the mother of all threads on the most important things to know for this year. 🧵1/23 Image
The context: Despite what many think (Europeans' cultural cringe and all), #Eurovision is a big deal.

It's the most-watched annual live event in the world, with an average 200m viewers each year. That's more than the 🇺🇸Superbowl, Oscars & Grammys combined en.as.com/en/2022/03/14/…
Each year 40,000 visitors descend on the #Eurovision host city.

🇬🇧Liverpool is hosting this year. They've built a fan zone holding 15,000 people. There will be 9 shows over the week (televised: 2 semis & 1 final).

The 54,000 tickets sold out in an hour. citymonitor.ai/neighbourhoods…
Read 23 tweets

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