This year’s Europe Festival opened yesterday in Taipei to celebrate Europe Day and give people a taste of the continent while international travel is hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two-day fair, themed “The EU Connects,” organized by the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan, is held on a swathe of grass on the northern side of the Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei.
This year’s edition features more than 50 stalls that showcase European brands, products, food, cuisine and cultural activities.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The festival was not held in the previous two years.
Office Director Filip Grzegorzewski, representatives of 15 EU member states in Taiwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Taipei Commissioner for External Affairs Tom Chou (周台竹) were among the attendees at the festival’s opening.
“I believe this pandemic has shown us how deeply connected we are with each other,” Grzegorzewski said.
“The EU and Taiwan may seem far from each other geographically, but we are connected through the common values we share as like-minded partners, such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law,” he said.
Wu said that Taiwan-EU relations have “never been stronger.”
He thanked European countries for voicing support for Taiwan’s wish to participate in international organizations, citing the French Senate’s adoption of a resolution to that effect and a joint communique on the issue from G7 foreign ministers.
Europe Day marks the EU’s birthday, according to the office’s Web site.
On May 9, 1950, then-French minister of foreign affairs Robert Schuman “proposed a European peace project to end all wars on the European continent. The plan then gave birth to the European Union as we know it today,” a statement on the Web site said, adding that May 9 “is thus commemorated as ‘Europe Day,’ and a day to highlight Europe’s unity and diversity.”
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