Ukraine now has a place alongside members of the EU bloc at Mini Europe, the open-air theme park in Brussels displaying small replicas of famous European landmarks.
The inauguration took place on Monday July 25th in the presence of the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hadja Lahbib, and a representative of the Ukrainian Embassy in Belgium, Natalia Anoshyna, as reported by news agency Belga. On one of the models, Ukrainian and European flags are flying near the Independence Column on Maidan Square in Kiev.
Another one shows Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, receiving the formal application for membership in the European Union from the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. The third model shows Ukrainian refugees arriving at the Polish border and the last one shows a convoy of material aid on its way to Ukraine.
According to Reuters, Mini-Europe owner Thierry Meeus said the idea was to demonstrate the EU’s solidarity with Ukraine, and the country’s European destiny. Ukraine is the first candidate for eventual membership of the EU to be represented at the park.
Mini-Europe, with an area of roughly 20,000 square meters, is a park where some of the most beautiful European monuments and sites are on display. It opened in 1989, and contains mini models of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, London’s Houses of Parliament and the Grand Place in Brussels.
It offers tourists visiting Brussels the possibility to learn about the history of Europe in a fun way. The buildings and scenes reproduced concern only member states of the European Union, but the park has made an exception with these four new models, to symbolize the expression of European solidarity with Ukraine, invaded by the Russian army since February of this year.
