The big question: what the hell is this thing? The answer depends on what happens tomorrow in a battle between 🇬🇧&🇫🇷. 🧵1/9
The idea is that this is a wider European bloc which will include countries not in the EU, either because they’re waiting to join, they don’t want to join, or they’ve left (🇬🇧).
But there are already such groupings, like the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and the OECD in Paris.
What’s the point of the EPC then?
The idea is that, unlike CoE & OECD, this will be a forum for heads of state and government to meet and discuss major issues.
Such leader meetings don’t happen in those other organisations.
The EPC was Macron’s idea, proposed in a speech to the 🇪🇺Parliament earlier this year when 🇫🇷 held the rotating EU Council presidency.
European Council President Charles Michel (often derisively called a Macron puppet in Brussels) ran with the idea, putting Council in the lead.
The EPC was Macron’s idea, proposed in a speech to the 🇪🇺Parliament earlier this year when 🇫🇷 held the rotating EU Council presidency.
European Council President Charles Michel (often derisively called a Macron puppet in Brussels) ran with the idea, putting Council in the lead.
Michel attached it to an informal European Council scheduled this Friday in Prague Castle, run by #Czechia which now holds the rotating presidency.
Macron specifically referred to 🇺🇦 & 🇬🇧 as reasons this forum is needed. Big question was: would 🇬🇧 join?
New UK PM #LizTruss had signalled she’s not interested, belittling the idea and saying it’s unnecessary.
But in one of several u-turns over the past week, she suddenly said not only will she attend and 🇬🇧 will join, she basically wants to run the thing. euractiv.com/section/future…
UK officials reportedly asked that the 2nd meeting be in 🇬🇧, and they also want to change the name - to “European Political Forum”.
It’s not hard to see what happened here. 🇬🇧realized if they don’t push to the front now, this will be an 🇪🇺-dominated forum bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
So tomorrow could turn into an arm-wrestling match between #Truss & #Macron (who she famously said is neither friend nor foe two months ago) over whether EU or non-EU countries will be in the lead.
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)
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
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).