Tbilisi, 9 May 2021 - 9 May is about peace and unity in Europe. The date marks the anniversary of the historic Schuman declaration. At a speech in Paris in 1950, Robert Schuman, the then French foreign minister, set out his idea for a new form of political cooperation in Europe, which would make war between Europes nations unthinkable.
His vision was to create a European institution that would pool and manage coal and steel production. A treaty creating such a body was signed just under a year later. Schumans proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the European Union.
Because of the ongoing restrictions, EUMM will unfortunately not engage in open doors events to celebrate Europe Day.
As this year, like the previous we celebrate 9 May over a persisting pandemic, we won’t have the opportunity to meet and welcome the Georgian public in squares and our premises for this event. We will instead keep virtual windows open and share with you about Europe Day.
Until we can meet again, have a look at these messages from our Head of Mission and EU Ambassadors. We shall shake hands again hopefully next year! #EuropeDay2021.
Team Europe issued a statement on Europe Day:
"Hello Georgia! Today we mark Europe Day.
Europe Day is about cooperation. Within the EU, cooperation has helped us build a stable, prosperous union, that is a global leader in key areas such as trade, environmental protection or digitalisation. Today, in Georgia, we also celebrate our good cooperation.
Georgia and the EU are close partners. We are proud to be Georgia’s main supporter during the terrible pandemic. We have delivered medical equipment and expertise, have helped secure vaccines and are assisting the vaccination roll out. We have provided funds for social support and economic recovery.
We are committed to supporting Georgia in its continued recovery across all areas. Strength comes through cooperation. As members of Team Europe, we are making a stronger impact together. The EU is stronger with Georgia as a partner. And the EU makes Georgia stronger.
Stronger together!"
Participants in order of appearance:
Thomas Muehlmann, Ambassador of Republic of Austria
Dessislava Ivanova-Kozleva, Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria
Hubert Knirsch, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany
Jorge Lucini Serrano de Haro, Chargé dAffaires ad interim of Kingdom of Spain
Dimitrios Karabalis, Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic
Enrico Valvo, Ambassador of the Italian Republic
Petr Mikyska, Ambassador of the Czech Republic
Diégo Colas, Ambassador of the French Republic
Viktoria Horvath, Ambassador of Hungary
Andrius Kalindra, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania
Bert Schoofs, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium
Maaike van Koldam, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Rāzvan Rotundu, Ambassador of Romania
Pavel Vízdal, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic
Marek Szczygieł, Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission
Ulrik Tideström, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden
Catarina Bjorlin Hansen, Regional Director Caucasus of EBRD
Maciej Czura, Head of EIB’s Regional Representation for the South Caucasus
Carl Hartzell, EU Ambassador to Georgia
Watch the video below:
