Juan David Latorre
Last Tuesday, the Embassy of Sweden celebrated in the garden of its headquarters the Midsommar Party, during which you could enjoy the rich Swedish gastronomy and music with the big surprise of the evening, the performance of the group ABBA. The new experience, who came all the way from Barcelona to cheer up and delight the guests with the most famous songs of the Swedish group.
In front of a packed Swedish Embassy gardens, the Swedish Ambassador, Teppo Markus Tauriainen, pointed out that, apart from the Midsommar Festival, “today we are also celebrating the fact that we are approaching the end of our presidency of the European Union. In less than two weeks we will hand over the baton to Spain. For us it has been a very intensive six months and unfortunately permeated by the Russian aggression against Ukraine and all its consequences, not only for the Ukrainian people, but also for all of us. And I think we can be quite happy that we Europeans have been able to remain united in our unconditional support for Ukraine. And we have to continue to support the Ukrainian people”.
The Swedish ambassador continued: “It is also about defending our fundamental European values and the principles of international law that have been called into question by this aggression. The motto of our presidency has been ‘A Safer, Greener, Freer Europe’. And I think we have made some progress. On security, we have maintained unity in relation to the aggression on Ukraine, we have made progress on the green transition and we have also dealt with issues such as long-term European competitiveness while addressing short-term challenges.”
The ambassador thanked all European states and colleagues for their support during these six months of the EU presidency “for being constructive and helping us in this work by advancing the European agenda”, and wished Spain every success in its presidency, which will begin in two weeks’ time.
Midsommar is the most important festival we celebrate in Sweden,” Ambassador Teppo Markus Tauriainen concluded, “because it is in the summer, the weather is quite good, the days are long and there is a lot of light in the north, you can already enjoy the midnight sun, a very special experience that I recommend”.
Many members and friends of the Swedish community in Madrid attended the party, as well as the ambassadors of Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Finland, Italy, Lithuania and Ireland, among others.
