A thread with all the European Commission Presidents, how they were chosen and some quotes.

14 Presidents. From 9 countries and 4 Political groups.
(1958 - today) 🧵





Wallter Hallstein (1958-1967) - 9years, 185 days-

Political Group: EPP
Unanimously elected as the 1st president of the Commission of the European Economic Community by the Council Members (🇧🇪🇫🇷🇱🇺🇮🇹🇳🇱 and West 🇩🇪

"The common market has the goal of unifying Europe politically"

The history of the EU elections through their video campaigns -

1979 - The 1st European and 1st international elections in history.

It was all about hope and writing the future (on the ballot. With a giant pencil) 1984 – Europe, do you hear me?

The second elections will be remembered as the beginning of the raise on seats and of the drop of the turnout (61%).

Slogans were all about ‘voice’, ‘democracy’, ‘unity’....and listening to the people.

"I reject a Europe that would be just a market, a free-trade zone without a soul, without a conscience, without political will, without a social dimension"

Jacques Delors in 10 quotes 🧵⬇️ "I have a passion for reform, for the progress of man and society. I cannot stand the feeling of being useless"

Jacques Delors, 1994

The definitive thread of the best videos ever made by EU Institutions.

Some funny. Some provocative. Some weird.

Feel free to send me your favourite or to add them directly as comments.

1/ The Chemical Party- by Marie Curie Actions programme 2/ 'Expect the unexpected' - European Health Insurance Card

15 July 1964 | Costa/ENEL ruling. A groundbreaking case that established the principle of primacy of EU law over the laws of EU countries.

Or how an unpaid electricity bill led to one of the key principles of EU law.

#OnThisDay #EUHistory
The judgement by @EUCourtPress via this link eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…

I can feel it coming. EU Institutions and politicians jumping massively into TikTok.

As a ‘geriatric millennial’, I feel empowered to give some general thoughts.

- To make an effective use of it
- To do not be ridiculous & end up harming your image and/or the Institutions' 👇 1/ Do not dance.

2/ You are not funny. I don't care what your advisors, colleagues, lovers, friends, wife, husband, crush or kids say. You. Are. Not. Funny. So don’t try to be.

Humour is tricky. A Finnish human will not understand jokes as you do (or ever – with the exception

European Commissioners from UK (1973-2019) 🇬🇧🇪🇺.
Appreciation thread.

Christopher Soames, European Commissioner for External Relations (1973-1977, Ortoli Commission)

"Europe united" for a greater influence in the world. Stronger than "individual countries” could have. George Thomson, European Commissioner in charge of Regional Policy (1973-1977, Ortoli Commission).

Under his mandate, the European Regional Development Fund was created.

As Juncker's @EU_Commission enters into caretaker mode, here is my tribute to the spokesperson service 2014-2019.

A thread with some funny Q&A exchanges during the daily press briefings.

#1: Abba and Brexit #2: Hello Kitty and competition rules

While some are focused in #Brexit slogans, and not able to separate facts from fiction, here is a thread on how the EU is present in your town, city and region, for our UK friends.

Examples of real projects and initiatives⤵️ Liverpool:
-The University alone successfully bid for £7.5m in EU funding for research on nuclear science, cardiovascular health...

-£2.85m for advice to SME manufacturers + £2.6m for 'eco-Innovatory' to develop low-carbon goods and services to help SMEs to grow sustainably

.@EU_Commission and @Europarl_EN 2014-2018.
Just some of the proposals, directives, regulations, communications...

-Investment plan for Europe
-End of roaming
-EU GDPR
-Circular economy package
-EU Solidarity Corps
-Cross border portability
-End of uUnjustified geoblocking -Consumer protection when shopping online
-Review Audiovisual Media Services Directive
-New deal for consumers package
-Simplified VAT rules e-commerce
-e-government action plan
-European cloud initiative,
-European open science cloud for researchers

Following the 'Article 7 vote' in the European Parliament, some facts on how the EU has been "punishing" Hungary since 2004... -Hungary is a net beneficiary since accession. It receives more money than it pays. +11.000 billion Hungarian forint since 2004.

-With 6.3 % of its wealth (gross national income) generated by EU investment, Hungary is one of the countries that benefits most from EU funding.