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.”
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS