Category: EU narrative
Enlargement is the French term by which we indicate the increase of the number of countries that belong to the European Union. The biggest growth happened in 2004, when the EU moved from fifteen to twenty-five countries. This process lasted a few decades and reached its completion when Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU on the 1st of May 2004, exactly twenty years ago. Twenty years of passion, hope, progress, complications, critics, love and some hate.
The European Elections are not only one of the biggest democratic exercises in the world, they are also a huge communication campaign with the same goal since 1979: get people to vote.
Join us in a roller-coaster of nostalgia, pain and joy to discover the evolution of the Parliament efforts. 10 European elections, 10 communication campaigns, uncountable slogans and videos for you to enjoy.
Of the many politicians I follow online, no one communicates as clearly and effectively as the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Gabrielius Landsbergis. I started following him with interest during the diplomatic tensions between Lithuania and China in 2021; the appreciation was mutual, as he also retweeted some of my memes; this fact particularly impressed my Lithuanian friends, even those that didn’t vote for his party: “He is cool, his whole family is cool”.
Interviewing Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, the Midday Matador, the Father-of-us-all DG COMMers, the EU’s favorite son… I didn’t think I could be up to the challenge, he is too good to let anything controversial slip. Nevertheless, after years of online interactions and memes, I gathered up my courage, contacted his communication advisor Vangelis Demiris and set up a meeting.
It is with a certain apprehension that I follow the social media account of Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management: I know that every time he tweets chances are there’s been a catastrophe somewhere in the world.
In this page we collect all the issues of EUROPOLITAN, the EU Bubble’s fictional fashion magazine which is published every year on Valentine’s Day. Special thanks to LM, AH, MT, RAS and RJ for helping the creative process.
EUROPOLITAN 2025
In this issue
- Draghi, Letta and Niinistö, the trio that keeps you awake at night
- New bumper sticker: Honk If You Love Bureaucracy!
- 10 yoga positions to be zen about Trump’s statements
Since I was a trainee at the Commission I was always intrigued by Valdis Dombrovskis: his institutional smiles, his precise statements, his lulling voice… One day my curiosity took over and I finally reached out to his team, asking for a short interview. They were so kind to accept and, to my surprise, I discovered that the curiosity was mutual, as EVP Dombrovskis also reads DG MEME.
Turning points in history often go unnoticed; but the European Community did not want this to happen to the first direct EU elections ever held, forty-four years ago.
The elections were set for 1979 (from 7 to 10 June) and the EU institutions had to set up their biggest communication campaign (to date). As many things in the EU, the success was debatable, but it was a first step. The first step to keep moving EU communication forward. Or at least not backward. Standing still is also fine, actually.
Jean Monnet, the architect of the European Union, linked his political future to the creation of a pan-European military force: before the ‘strategic autonomy’ mantra, there were a proposal, an agreement and a Treaty signed by the ‘inner six’ (27 May 1952). This is the story of the “European army”, a dream that could have been reality.
The first European Army
The planned European Defense Community (EDC) would have entailed a pan-European military: the Treaty of Paris establishing the EDC, signed in May 1952 (yes, there have been a hundred more treaties signed in Paris), established a EU co-force with a shared budget, common arms, centralized military procurement and #EUdefence institutions.