Members of the European Union (EU) will celebrate Europe Day the European way with a Qatari twist on May 10 at the Doha Sheraton Hotel.
Laszlo Szabo, ambassador of Hungary to Qatar, said the members of the EU want their presence felt in Qatar and to “show that the EU is an important community.”
“Some people don’t know what the EU is … we celebrate Europe Day — which is May 9, but we thought to celebrate it on May 10 — because we want to show that the EU is present here in Qatar, and that this is an important alliance with the main focus on peace, freedom, solidarity and cooperation,” said Szabo.
According to Szabo, Czechoslovakia was supposed to organise the Europe Day as it is its turn at the EU presidency, which changes every six months. “But we do not have a Czech Embassy here, so we are organising the event instead of them.”
Some members of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra will perform during the event. “A number of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra’s members are from Europe, yes, it’s an orchestra founded in Qatar, but some members are from Europe. There are 14 Hungarians in the group, around 25 Germans, and so on…” Szabo said.
Szabo said trade between Qatar and Hungary was increasing each year. “Trade between Qatar and Hungary has reached around $40m this year.”
Balazs Ratkai, in charge of the EU presidency affairs, Hungarian Embassy, said there were around 250 Hungarians in the country.
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=May2009&file=Local_News2009050533057.xml
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