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Dot Commons
Tuesday 8th May 2012
Van Rompuy announces Euro summit... on Twitter
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After a day of panic in European stock markets, a French president-elect calling for a new fiscal pact and still no end in sight to the Greek election crisis, it is perhaps a wise move for the EU to call an emergency summit.
But the manner of its announcement was a tad unconventional.
The President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy announced a meeting on his personal Twitter account.
However, it’s not the first time Van Rompuy has caused bewilderment by tweeting breaking news. During a crucial debt-crisis meeting last year, he tweeted: “We have an agreement on the pact for Euro”.
Perhaps realising he’d inadvertently caused a premature market rally in the currency, the short-lived tweet was deleted later that day, and replaced with a less optimistic one revealing discussions were ongoing.
Van Rompuy once admitted in a talk at LSE that his job was “simpler than many people think”. He sits in meetings, he revealed.
It appears there is no better outlet than Twitter for keeping his fans abreast of his many meetings with amusing pictures.
After holding a meeting with Henry Kissinger last year – who once famously remarked: “who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?” – Van Rompuy tweeted the caption– “With Henry Kissinger. We are exchanging phone numbers.”
