It creeps up on you with alarming regularity… is it really a year ago that we last played every EU nerd’s party game, Barroso Bullshit Bingo? Anyway in just 2 days – on Wednesday at 0900 CET – our beloved President of the European Commission (who has discovered both a bit of a backbone and Twitter of late) will give his State of the European Union address in the European Parliament.

The idea, as in previous years, is to predict the buzzwords Barroso will use in the speech and see how well you score. Names of other EU institutions, and politicians are not allowed in your list. MEPs who will be in the chamber listening to Barroso are especially welcome to shout ‘Bingo’ very loudly while he is speaking if their words crop up.

Anyway, here are my 10 words for this year:

  1. economic crisis
  2. financial transaction tax
  3. lender of last resort
  4. political union
  5. federation
  6. more jobs and growth
  7. eurosceptics
  8. firewall
  9. adequate financial means
  10. increase in the EU budget

You can follow the joys of the speech on Twitter via the hashtag #SOTEU.

13 Comments

  1. AnneCbxl

    OK, tweet me @AnneCbxl – or Jon can send you my email address ;o)

  2. Paulina

    Wow guys you are awesome! Yes, a stress ball will be very cool (for the next time Barroso or van Rompuy make a public appearance) and P-Lux, PM coming your way too!

    Jon, please keep this going!!!

  3. AnneCbxl

    Paulina, I can offer you an European Ombudsman anti-stress squeeze toy?

  4. Paulina

    I did a keyword search on the Press Release: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/12/596
    True that he mentioned FTT but it’s Financial Transactions Tax (plural), which is why I didn’t pick it up in the original search.

    I really think that this is such a superfun idea that it should go global. I imagine people sipping coffee at 9am somewhere at Place Lux, watching the address on some large screen TV, crossing their words out and shouting ‘Bullshit Bingo’! How geeky-awesome would that be?!?

    Then we would need super-fun ideas for awards. Like Duracell-style Bunny Barroso or T-shirts saying ‘survived BBB@EU’ 🙂

    Still, do I get aaaaany award this time??? I consider getting this list right my personal triumph and would like something to commemorate 😉

  5. Well, Paulina if you really won and as we promised on our facebook page and on twitter, you won a P-Lux tee, the first nice t-shirt brand about Europe ! send us a mess on our email or by facebook to check what size / colour we may find for you in our stock !
    Thanks Jon for this entertaining game… I found Barroso not so bad / bullshitting in the end!
    Cheers

  6. AnneCbxl

    Oh, come on! he said “growth and employment”!

    He did not say More Europe, but “more European unity”

    And I see that I got Destiny after all ;o)

  7. Paulina

    I think I won this. Here is what others didn’t get:
    Jon: financial transaction tax
    Filip: Real European Added Value
    Ane: Growth and Jobs
    Charlie: guidelines
    Javier: Federalism

    What did I win? 🙂

  8. He did mention financial transaction tax. But my ones about the budget were wrong…

  9. Paulina

    1. economic crisis
    2. unemployment
    3. youth
    4. integration
    5. political union
    6. budget
    7. treaty
    8. change
    9. banking
    10.fiscal

  10. I propose framework / guidelines / sustainable growth / program / strategy / employment / social inclusion / restoring / future / implementation – Hope to win the Bingo first !

  11. I am going all in on the budget increase incentitives!

    http://www.filipkirkegaard.dk/archives/116

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