Cllr Martin Horwood 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇿🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺

LibDem cllr for Leckhampton & Warden Hill. Ex MP & MEP. Into Lecky, Chelt, Europe, the planet. Promoted by Cheltenham Liberal Democrats, 16 Hewlett Rd GL52 6AA

[Cllr Martin Horwood 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇿🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @MartinChelt]

Proud of my former colleagues in @Europarl_EN. @RenewEurope are right: now is the time for Europe, all of free Europe, to act. EU and UK must act in concert in support of Ukraine. @ALDEParty @LibDems

[Renew Europe @RenewEurope]

You are not alone, @ZelenskyyUa, the aggressor and the victim should never be confused.

We are with you 🇺🇦🇪🇺

Now is time for Europe to act.

[Olena Rohoza @OlenaRohoza]

🇪🇺 HISTORIC MOMENT: THE EUROPEAN UNION SETS A DATE FOR UKRAINE'S ACCESSION TALKS! 🇺🇦🤝

It's official: the door to Europe is opening even wider for Ukraine. The European Union has finally agreed on a specific date to begin formal negotiations on Ukraine’s membership.

Ukraine has come a long way, and the final stretch toward becoming a full member of the European family now lies ahead.

This is recognition of the country's efforts, resilience, and commitment to its European path. The process is now moving from declarations to practical negotiations.

Are you ready to see Ukraine join the European Union? 🇺🇦🇪🇺

[Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen]

Russia’s massive attack on Ukraine last night shows the Kremlin’s brutality and disregard for both human life and peace negotiations.

Terror against civilians is not strength. It's despair.

We stand firmly with Ukraine, with further support on the way to reinforce its air defence systems.

[Cllr Martin Horwood 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇿🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @MartinChelt]

@JDVance He’s not respected at all. They all think he’s an ignorant egotistical idiot. His former allies all distrust him - now add Taiwan to the already long list - while the strategic enemies of the United States and the free world, including Xi, thinks he’s the most useful idiot ever.

[Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen]

It's Europe Day!

Today, we celebrate all that Europe stands for.

And we celebrate all of us, the citizens of Europe.

Because all together, we are Europe.

Happy Europe Day!

[NXT EU @NXT4EU]

For the first time in 12 years, the EU flag is back at the Hungarian parliament.

Thank you @magyarpeterMP ! 🇪🇺

[ABerry 🇬🇧🌹 @LabourBerry]

I'll just leave this here

[NXT EU @NXT4EU]

Canada turned the Niagara Falls blue for the European Union! 🇪🇺🇨🇦

They also played Ode to Joy, the EU's anthem, an early celebration of Europe Day which is celebrated tomorrow.

Europe & Canada, we are family ❤️

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Today is Europe Day.
And Ukraine is marking it not formally or through sloganeering, but fully aware that we are already an inseparable part of the European family. We are defending Ukraine, our independence, our future – and in doing so, we in Ukraine are defending our Europe. A Europe of which Ukraine has been and will remain a part.

From the first days of the full-scale war until today, Europe has stood with Ukraine. And this is not charity – it is a choice made by Europeans: to stand on the same side as the brave and the strong – the Ukrainians who are fighting today for peace and true protection against tyranny, not only for themselves, but for the entire continent. And we will inevitably defend our state, our people, and our right to freely choose our future – a future in Europe.

Glory to Ukraine!

[Pedro Sánchez @sanchezcastejon]

La Unión Europea es la segunda mayor potencia económica y la región socialmente más avanzada del mundo.

Es también nuestro hogar y nuestro futuro. Nuestro privilegio y nuestra responsabilidad.

Feliz día de Europa a todas y todos.

[Emmanuel Macron @EmmanuelMacron]

C’est la journée de l’Europe.

L’Europe est aujourd’hui une évidence qui pourtant n’allait pas de soi. Elle est un héritage arraché aux ruines, un trésor façonné par le courage de celles et ceux qui ont refusé que le nationalisme et la guerre soient notre destin.

Face aux crises, l’Europe n’a cessé de nous protéger et d’agir vite, fort et en solidarité quand l'Histoire frappe à notre porte. Dans la pandémie, dans les turbulences économiques, face à la menace russe et à la guerre en Ukraine sur le sol de notre Europe, nous résistons, toujours.

L’Europe est bien plus que les bénéfices de son grand marché unique : elle soutient notre agriculture, notre jeunesse et nos universités, notre recherche, nos territoires et nos emplois, notre diversité culturelle, nos exportations, nos frontières, notre sécurité et notre indépendance dans un monde de périls.

Bien sûr, l’Europe peut et doit encore s’améliorer. Il y a tant à faire encore.

Mais nous devons être fiers d’être Européens. Fiers de bâtir le continent le plus écologique, le plus exigeant sur le numérique, celui qui investit dans l’innovation et la technologie pour produire en Europe et sortir de nos dépendances stratégiques, celui qui défend partout les valeurs démocratiques et humanistes.

Depuis 2017, j’y consacre mon énergie, pour les Françaises et les Français, parce qu’une partie significative de notre avenir et de notre souveraineté se joue là : l’Europe respecte et renforce nos nations.

À chaque génération revient le devoir immense de faire vivre l’Europe, l’aimer, la transformer, pour qu’elle soit forte, puissante, indépendante, qu’elle nous serve tous et qu'elle protège ce que nous avons en partage : une certaine idée de l'Homme et une capacité à agir pour assurer nos choix libres et souverains.

C’est encore plus important dans un monde qui aujourd’hui vacille où notre trésor de paix, d’unité et de souveraineté européenne a une valeur inestimable.

En ce 9 mai, en Européen convaincu, déterminé et fier, je dis très simplement :

Vive notre Europe !

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Marco Rubio Has Discovered That NATO Exists

Marco Rubio stood at a podium recently and said, with the confidence of a man who has never read anything, that if NATO can’t be used to “project to other contingencies,” then “we have a problem.”

He is correct. There is a problem. The problem is Marco Rubio.

Article 5 of the NATO treaty has existed since 1949. It says, in language so simple a golden retriever could grasp it, that an attack on one member is an attack on all. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

You don’t need a law degree. You barely need literacy.

What Article 5 does not say, and what no page of the NATO founding treaty has ever suggested, is that 31 sovereign European nations signed up to serve as a strategic parking lot for American military adventures on the other side of the planet.

Denmark did not join a defensive alliance in 1949 so that, 75 years later, it could help Washington bomb a country it got bored looking at.

NATO is a shield. Not a sword. Not a taxi service. Not a valet for whatever impulsive geopolitical tantrum is trending in Washington this quarter.

The Americans have now spent 15 months confused by this distinction.

Their finest minds, their cabinet secretaries, their very best people, staring at the treaty like a dog watching television. Ears up. Deeply engaged. Understanding absolutely nothing.

The good news is that Europe has finally understood something too: you cannot outsource your survival to people who find a single sentence intellectually challenging.

Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

[Donald Tusk @donaldtusk]

Unia Europejska jest niedoskonała, irytująca, nudna, ale niczego lepszego w naszej historii nie wymyśliliśmy. Czas pokoju, dobrobytu, wolności, demokracji i solidarności między narodami przez wieki walczącymi ze sobą to cud. Niech trwa jak najdłużej.

[Cllr Martin Horwood 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇿🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @MartinChelt]

Good Morning 🌞 ! It’s polling day in Leckhampton and across Cheltenham. Vote for hardworking local resident Julia! Vote YES to the Leckhampton Neighbourhood Plan! Polls open til 10pm. Remember to take Photo ID.

[Rep. Don Bacon 🇺🇸✈️🏍️⭐️🎖️ @RepDonBacon]

Our Polish ally speaks the truth.

[John Simpson @JohnSimpsonNews]

Congratulations to Westminster Council for their acceptance of Banksy’s brilliant statue near Pall Mall. Let’s hope it stays — a welcome note of calmness and humour at a time of growing extremism.

[Cllr Martin Horwood 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇿🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @MartinChelt]

@Elsa_0224_ @nicksortor You know the only NATO country that has ever asked for help under Article 5 was the USA after 9/11, right? And every single NATO country responded. More than a thousand of our troops died. https://t.co/SwWRfh0nrF

[Cllr Martin Horwood 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇿🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @MartinChelt]

@FAFOVETERAN @nicksortor Germany is part of the largest single market economy in the world worth €300bn to the US economy. Good luck with that. https://t.co/DSt2G4itYK

[Cllr Martin Horwood 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇿🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @MartinChelt]

@nicksortor Why did you ask for our help after 9/11 then?

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Germany is not hosting American troops. It is hosting American power. Amplifying it. Projecting it across three continents. And now, for the first time with real legal and political weight behind it, voices inside Germany are beginning to say out loud: Berlin could shut down every American base on German soil.

A fiber-optic cable runs beneath Ramstein Air Base. It carries a signal from a drone pilot in Nevada to an armed aircraft over Yemen. Fraction of a second. Precision. Control. That cable sits on German soil. Cut it, and the strikes do not miss. They simply cannot happen.

This week Washington punished Berlin for telling the truth about the Iran war. Five thousand troops withdrawn. A presidential post calling Germany a failure.
The language of a tenant who has forgotten whose name is on the deed.

Because Berlin can end all of it. Not the 5,000. All 36,436. Every soldier, every satellite dish, every signal passing through German soil on its way to a target over Africa or the Middle East.

Spain tore it up. Italy said no. Germany has not moved yet.

But it is thinking about it. And what it is thinking about is this: Germany holds the one thing that separates America from every other country on earth. The ability to project military force across three continents simultaneously. Take away the European staging ground and the United States becomes what every other nation in the Western Hemisphere already is. Large. Armed. And unable to reach anyone who does not live next door.

https://t.co/WNPeoGJ5oM