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Tweets of the Week: Pope, SOTEU, Timmermans influential

By Marlene Stocker | EURACTIV.com | video by Jacques Vermeer

17-09-2021

Pope sticks to the essential, SOTEU has snack potential, and Timmermans is ranked influential.

Pope Francis started this week with a visit to Hungary and Slovakia. Or as he calls it: #ApostolicJourney.

 

For Peter Murphy, the setup had a very strong chessboard vibe, with the pope threatening checkmate..

 

Reuters called it an unusually short trip to Budapest.

 

Just long enough to crack a joke at the airport …

 

… and perform this little dance as he left

 

But he generally seems to be in favour of keeping it short.

In Slovakia, he told priests that “a homily shouldn’t last more than 10 minutes…people lose interest!”

 

Which Christoph Schmidt very subtly used to hint at VDL’s State of the Union.

 

A 1h speech followed by 81 MEP interventions? I wonder what he’s talking about.

But hey, if you have some time to spare: forget about the buzzword bingo, there’s a new pastime in town: Knitting !

With Commissioners Vestager

… and Johansson joining the fun.

 

Here’s a rough overview of VDL-speek, courtesy of MEP Luis Garicano:

VDL used English for economics and health, French for social policy and German to warn the Poles to respect the rule of law and our values.

 

She also announced the European Chips Act.

Which Twitter, naturally, reacted to like this:

 

Kira Taylor said that hearing about a chips act just made her hungry.

 

The Belgians are asking where the Mayo Act is, joked Martini Seltzermayr

 

Who could argue with a “European Chip Act”? We already have Place Jourdan as our first “Chip Ecosystem”, said Jim Brunsden

 

And Tom Moylan pointed out, that is does go with our European Cookie Policy

 

But Andrea Chiarello was a bit disappointed that European Potato Trade Association had not yet issued a statement

 

Finally this week:

What does Frans Timmermans have in common with Billie Eilish, Harry and Meghan?

He made it on the Time 100 list of most influential figures in 2021

 

Neither von der Leyen nor any other commissioner made the list, so Mehreen Khan.

 

And Bernd Hüttemann quipped”who says a #Spitzenkandidat cannot make it…?

 

Not sure that’s what the Spitzenkandidaten were meant for, but then again: I can’t rule it out entirely either.

And that’s it for this week, join us again next Friday for more sitting and knitting…

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