Me-We: Your contribution times half a billion - what a force!

Me-We during the Presidency

Climate badges, Young Reporters and sea rescue in the Baltic. The fall of the Berlin Wall, organic carrots, children’s rights and Spanish culture. The Presidency has provided many opportunities for meetings and discussions on European cooperation. Here you can read about some of the activities.

During the Swedish EU Presidency, a number of meetings and seminars have been arranged all over the country, giving people and organisations the opportunity to discuss the Presidency and Europe’s most urgent issues.

Climate lists for the abolishment of VAT on bananas

“Abolish VAT on organic bananas!”, Lasse Åberg proposed as he took the opportunity to make a climate badge at the Presidency’s climate exhibition. During the Presidency, the exhibition toured the country in support for the work on climate change, one of the Presidency’s key issues. Hundreds of people took the opportunity to make lists with suggestions for how to counteract climate change.

105 articles, 15 interviews with ministers and a total of 43 minutes, 11 seconds of web interviews is the end result for Young Reporters, a school project where upper secondary school pupils were invited to report from Presidency meetings in Sweden. “It has been great to be involved and to be treated like a proper reporter. The EU has become real to me in a way that it never was before”, says Emily Ågren Ylinenjarvi, Young Reporter from Umeå.

Baltic Sea talks on board the brig ‘Tre kronor’

The Baltic Sea week, which was held in mid-September, gave Baltic Sea organisations an opportunity to present their work. In Karlskrona, for example, seminars were held on maritime safety and transport and in Stockholm there was a small business seminar on growth in the Baltic Sea region. The same week a ministerial conference was held, attended by ministers from the EU Member States, paving the way for the adoption of the Baltic Sea Strategy later in the autumn. In connection with the conference, leading Baltic Sea actors from Sweden and other countries met on the brig ‘Tre Kronor’ on Skeppsbron for visionary talks on how to develop the region together.

The Baltic Sea was also the theme of ‘Live Food’ which was held on the roof of Kulturhuset. Chef Rune Kalf-Hansen hosted a talk show where Minister for EU Affairs Cecilia Malmström, adventurer Renata Chlumska, State Secretary Maria Åsenius and artist Nassem Al-Fakir cooked, listened to cool music and tasted organic carrots.

The themes of this year’s Göteborg Book Fair were Spain and vulnerability. The Presidency was there with a stand. Both Minister for Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth and Minister for EU Affairs Cecilia Malmström attended. The Spaniards were represented by Minister for EU Affairs Diego Lopez Garrido who had an interesting discussion with Cecilia Malmström.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Prague lies west of Stockholm

On 9 November, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was commemorated in seminars, talks and exhibitions at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. The discussions focused on topics including what led up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, rights of homosexuals in modern Europe and freedom of expression. Artist Mark Levengood chaired a very popular seminar on the situation of children. That Prague lies west of Stockholm was the starting point for a well-attended seminar on how Europe changes our image of the world when east becomes west and the EU grows.

During the autumn, a series of seminars took place all over the country with the theme ‘Sweden as a temporary superpower’. In Karlstad, the role of regions in Europe was discussed by local representatives of organisations and government agencies.

At the end of November, Luleå hosted a seminar on the Swedish EU Presidency and the new Russia. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs spoke about how the Swedish EU Presidency handled relations with the EU’s eastern neighbour and a journalist gave an independent view of how the EU is affected by a changing Russia.

Pupils from Solna drew pictures for the European guests

The 3 500 delegates arriving in Stockholm to participate in meetings each received a framed drawing made by pupils from Solna. So that the children will be able to follow the journeys made by their drawings, and be able to see where the drawings have ended up, a special online map was created where the recipients can register their pictures.