Tweets of the Week: Fidesz, Vaccine Passports, Future of Europe

Fidesz party does a volte face, it’s not a vaccine passport it’s a digital pass, and the conference on Europe will have too much top brass

This episode is supported by the European Round Table for Industry – ERT, more about them later on.

The big news this week is that Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party has left the #EPP faction in the European Parliament, after years of disagreements with the conservative group, which was preparing to vote on their suspension. Will they now join #ECR asked Alexandra Brzozowski.

Very possibly given the love letter the ECR wrote on hearing about the breakup. 

The ECR just swiped right on #Fidesz joked MEP Assistant.

Hungarian Minister for Families, Katalin Novák, tweeted that Fidesz has decided to leave the Group because they could not allow MEPs to be silenced or limited in their capacity to represent voters.

No mention of the fact that the Group was on the brink of expelling them.

 

EPP MEP Róża Thun for one was not sorry to see them go.

Adieu Fidez, I will not cry, she said.

Veronica Orrù took the opportunity to share of of Jean Claude Juncker’s greatest moments.

Not the first time a Fidesz MEP has jumped from a party in Brussels recently, snarked Luke James.

Indeed Luke, no one has forgotten that little snafu.

In fact here’s a meme that’s currently being shared on Hungarian social media.

Also this week, when is a vaccine passport not a vaccine passport?

When it’s a Digital Green Pass of course!

 

Ursula von der Leyen was keen to emphasis that the proposed pass will respect data protection, security and privacy and is simply proof that a person has been vaccinated with results of tests for those who couldn’t get a vaccine yet and info on COVID19 recovery.

The EU’s digital vaccine certificate is already coming under public pressure and it was only just announced 2 hours ago, noted Jack Parrock.

By Wednesday:

The Commission is quietly downgrading its “digital green pass” plan due later this month. It’s no longer going to be called a “pass” but merely a certificate commented Mehreen Khan.

Le Chou revealed leaked images of how it thought the “pass” would look.

Simon Brodkin imagined vaccine passport holders arriving in Ibiza… yes, we get it, they’re all over 65.

This week we are supported by ERT. Find out about their companies’ actions for inclusion, diversity and voluntary targets for women in leadership. The report is out on 5 March. Follow the hashtag #EmbraceDifference.

Finally this week, the European Parliament gave its green light to the Conference on the Future of Europe.

After months of haggling over how many presidents it would have. For anyone who still cares, they abandoned the idea of a single president in favour of having 6! Three honorary presidents and three executive presidents.

 

Christoph Schmidt reckons every citizen will be asked to be vice president at this conference.

Anthony Zacharzewski said that’s one of the problems of the conference: Too many presidents. Too little time. But it can still make a positive difference to the emerging European Democracy.

Second thoughts lads, how about we make it the Videoconference on the Future of Europe, said Martini Seltzermayr.

Luckily Zoom doesn’t set a limit on the number of co-hosts, everyone can be a president, laughed Pepijn Bergsen!

In conclusion, the danger is high that we end up with the EU institutions putting on a show, handing a report to the Council and there is much ado about nothing, in the end harming rather than strengthening the EU and its legitimacy said Nicolai von Ondarza.