Borrell gets lost in aviation transmission

Thanks to Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso, us lot who live around the Baltic at least know the basics of recent Spanish history. But European Parliament President Josep Borrell seems not to have much of a clue about Scandinavian or Baltic history.

Dismissing the One Seat campaign, he suggested that Parliament’s Strasbourg seat was a symbol of Franco-German reconciliation after the Second World War and could evidently not be understood "in some Nordic country" which had not participated in this war.

The Danes were quick to remind him that they had German ‘visitors’ in 1939-45. The Baltic States were handed over to Josef Stalin for half a century. Finland resisted the Soviet Union for five years. It was never occupied, but lost 100,000 men and a tenth of its territory. The Red Army lost about one million men against the Finns, who still claim that one Finn is a match for ten Russians.

We northerners do not know much about Strasbourg’s history but a visitor gets the feeling that local people must keep a white flag hidden in every cupboard of their homes, just in case. One loses count of how many times this town has changed rulers.

The Swedish Communication Commissioner Margot Wallström quite rightly pointed out that Strasbourg has now become "a negative symbol of wasting money, bureaucracy and the insanity of the Brussels institutions".

Cecilia Malmström, who last week was promoted from MEPhood to an even more majestic position in the Swedish government, was the one who kicked off the One Seat campaign. And the European affairs minister in Stockholm had a few things to say about Borrell’s clumsiness.

"Since when is suffering in Second World War a criterion for being permitted to speak your mind on EU matters?" she asked.

As a matter of fact Sweden was deeply involved in the war, in its own, traditional neutral way. The war would have ended at least one year earlier and with millions fewer casualties if the generous Swedes had not allowed the Germans to get their hands on the precious iron ore to make more guns and tanks.

We do not have strong feelings where the Parliament should meet as long as it is somewhere, not two places. Strasbourg is a nice town give or take the heavy food and watery wines. If the Parliament could stay there throughout the sessions there would be more direct flights to Strasbourg from European capitals and a bigger airport.

Josep Borrell’s first degree was in aircraft engineering. He will soon land from his high post to the ground-level tranquillity of an ordinary MEP. At least from the point of view of aviation safety he surely made the right choice in becoming a mere politician.

Thanks to Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso, us lot who live around the Baltic at least know the basics of recent Spanish history. But European Parliament President Josep Borrell seems not to have much of a clue about Scandinavian or Baltic history.