On Friday, the British Ambassador to Luxembourg, Alice Walpole, hosted a Garden Party in the grounds of her residence on the occasion of the official birthday of Queen Elzabeth II, with quests from the local business and political communities and diplomatic corps.
In her speech, Ambassador Walpole highlighed Victory in Europe Day as the theme; in the UK more than 3 million people celebrated in the streets of London in May 1945 the end of the European part of WWII, 70 years ago. VE Day marked the end of a dramatic moment in the shared European history and the start of a new era which then saw the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992, laying the groundwork for the EU as it stands today, the culmination of a trend towards greater European integration that started in the aftermath of WWII and which some historians place with Winston Churchill; in 1946 he gave a speech advocating his remedy for destructive conflicts in Europe.
Ambassador Walpole then addressed Britain's modern relationship with its European partners, stressing its committment to a peaceful and prosperous European continent. "One of the reasons that Britain is sometime a demanding partner in negotiations among European states is that we are ambitious about building the best possible European Union... No country is more interested, nor more actively engaged, in the future of Europe than the United Kingdom."
She concluded by toasting Her Majesty the Queen on her birthday.
The Spitfire Sisters helped recreate the atmosphere of the 1940s with some quite excellent and rousing tunes.
Photo by Geoff Thompson (L-R): Br Ambassador Alice Walpole; Rev Chris Lyon of the Anglican Church in Luxembourg; with the Spitfire Sisters in the background.
