The month of August is not generally a busy news time for the European institutions, and, for the European Parliament is (almost) entirely covered by the summer recess.  Consequently, staff are encouraged – nay, obliged – to take a hefty portion of their annual leave in this period and, as far as the website is concerned, we go into repeat mode.  (On which, see this previous post.)

But things do happen in the summer from time to time of course, and now and then there occurs a big story which has to be covered on Parliament’s website.  The second week of August this year saw two events of direct and immediate importance to the European Parliament which its website could not ignore.  First, the outbreak of hostilities in the Caucasus, obviously a major world event involving grevious human suffering, deeply worrying for many Europeans, and an episode where the Parliament had a significant involvement on the ground.   Scratching around for some-one to write up the story in each and every language, WebCom’s editorial coordinator, fortuitously back from holiday on that very day, managed to ensure that Parliament’s response to events in Georgia, along with comments from the President and other parliamentarians were published on the site.

The other event, of 7 August, was on a much lower scale of importance, but one with a considerable direct impact on the institution, its members and staff and is the “small earthquake” of our title.  On that day, a portion of the suspended ceiling of Parliament’s chamber (hemicycle) – about 10% of the surface area – unexpectedly, and seemingly without any prior indication, collapsed in a heap of dust and rubble onto the seats below.  Nobody was in the room at the time and therefore, happy to relate, no-one was injured.  Staff in Strasbourg swiftly sounded the alert and soon the building was swarming with buildings experts, structural engineers, architects along with the essential staff summoned peremptorily back from their holidays, to assess the damage and work out what to do next.

But what of the communications aspects?  Certainly when measured against events in Georgia, an amount of falling masonery in an empty room in Strasbourg cannot be considered a world news event, but is it one requiring “news alert” treatment on the website? 

The priority of the people on the spot, practical minded people whose job it is to make (and repair) things,  was to get on with sorting out the mess.  News of the occurrence took a while to filter out.  When it did so, its was initially in the form of a video posted on the internet by a local news site “StrasTV”, showing the dust-and-plaster covered hemicycle (nearly 69,000 views at the time of writing).  It was picked up in some media, especially French and euro-centric, but didn’t seem really to take off.  It was treated essentially as one of those curiosity stories, an opportunity for a bit of a snigger at Parliament’s misfortune and an opening for those who gladly take any opening for a spot of EU and/or Parliament bashing to serve up their usual fare, seasoned with a little schadenfreude.   Parliament itself stated the bare facts in a press release sent out some six days after the event, but did not publish it on the website.

Inside Parliament, of course, especially as significant numbers of staff returned to the office as from 18 August, the “Strasbourg ceiling” story was the hottest subject in town, especially as it implied the possibility, for the first time ever, that the parliamentary session would not be held in Strasbourg, but (presumably) in Brussels, a hypothesis subsequently confirmed by the Secretary-General on 21 August.  For internal hothouse purposes, this made the story really big as it touches the endlessly fraught argument between those who oppose the Parliament meeting in Strasbourg and those who believe that it should continue to do so, not least because it is bound by treaty to do so.  Thus did a story about a local accident and an eminently reasonable practical decision taken in consequence become a Beltway obsession.

The decision to meet in Brussels did indisputably make the “Strasbourg ceiling” story one worth publishing on the website.  A press release was published in all languages on the headlines page on 21 August (now available on the press service page) announcing the decision.  Now, as MEPs start to return, we can expect the fur to start flying… 

Looking back, this episode poses some interesting communications questions.  Did we understate the story initially (aided and abetted by the depths of the August recess) only to overstate it later?  If this was a small earthquake, then it only really has that status for EP afficionados.  For most of the world, this was a little silly season story, followed by a reasonable, and hardly world-shattering, decision to meet for a session in Brussels while Strasbourg gets fixed.  Perhaps, at another time of year, we might have handled things a little differently?  Or maybe being away from Brussels helped provide a perspective we wouldn’t have had while in the thick of a parliamentary session?