Archive for March, 2009
Taste for controversy
Do I have a particular taste for controversy or do I come from a region of Europe full of controversies? Probably both, still I sometimes believe Europe is not ready to face “our controversies”.
MEP internet superstar
Who’d have thought it possible? The internet’s most popular video was this week a recording of a three minute speech by a Conservative MEP. Yes, that’s a speech by an MEP… With 1.4 million views at the time of writing
Europe XXL
Time for a little “Culture section”! Frankly, it cannot be always about Obama, the Communication campaign or the desesperate lack of a major European p0rn star – as deeply expressed by one of our editors during a meeting. Raffaella brings you her vision of what Europe should be.
The devil is in the quote
It is gray and rainy Brussels Tuesday morning. Would it be really unjust to say it is just Tuesday morning in Brussels? Three people leave their cosy editorial lair on Rue Montoyer and go hunting. Armed with one light dictaphone between two, supported with a heavy pro DSLR operated by our Italian condottiere-photographer, shielded with [...]
“It’s Your Choice” goes viral
Well, it didn’t take long… EP-webeditors’ congratulations to Cédric Puisney (a.k.a. l’Européen jamais content) for his reinterpretations of the European elections campaign banners, posted yesterday. Nice work, and the bar set suitably high for future satirists… The emails were flying around the office this morning, with everyone selecting their favourite from Cédric’s versions of the [...]
Waiting for the New Year
We had several New Years already this year. In the beginning of January we celebrated the New Year we all know, in mid-January it was the orthodox New Year, at the end of January it was the Chinese New Year and last week – the Iranian one. However, there is still one to come – [...]
A big cheese and sacred cows
Afficionados of the elections website may have noticed our debate of the week focuses again on economic matters. Of course. “It’s the economy, stupid”, it was once famously observed – and that was in relatively good times. Right now, with the sense of slight unreality with which the current crisis was perhaps initially viewed (all [...]
Guest blogger: British media and the Misses
Since the Web Team opened this blog, our colleagues have looked on, intrigued by an exercise which reveals EP officials as real people rather than the euro-automata of popular myth. And sure enough, some want in. So, although this is, and will remain, the collective blog of the web team, we will be delighted to welcome the occasional guest blogger with something to say. Today no less a figure than the deputy spokesperson of the EP, who has had it up to HERE with some coverage of Parliament.
About the difficulty of being French in a multicultural unit
I have Danish, Bulgarian and Maltese colleagues in the office next to me. An Italian one in front of me. Some German, Spanish, Polish, Slovenian, Finnish colleagues in the same corridor. And they all speak perfect English. What about me? I’m French. And I sometimes feel stupid in that multicultural, multilingual and open-minded environment. Speaking [...]
A Cornish tale to savour
I have become a fan of 24 year old Sarah from Cornwall. The other day someone at work sent me the link to her video “UK & EU Date” which I really liked. Basically it starts with her looking through the personal ads of a newspaper where she eventually stumbles across a “strong, protective, multi-cultural entrepreneur who loves [...]
Sorry for spamming*
*Is inspired by some mails getting into my mailbox. Gloves, mobile phones, earrings, various kinds of lost objects. It works – at least some times people get them back. Sorry for spamming is also thankful to all the serious of mails exchanged within the team.
The Fifth Estate
Dipping a toe in academia today. Prof Dutton’s thesis is that contemporary society is seeing the emergence of a “Fifth Estate”, enabled by the internet and, to a lesser extent, other information and communications technology.
Living in a world of meetings
Meetings are not only a practicable alternative to work, as the famous Internet meme claims. They belong to the standard kit of tools you need or are forced to use the moment you enter an organisation composed of more than three people. In the case of the European parliament, we’ve reached the stage of a meetings factory. Our institution excels at creating, organising, and concocting meetings. In the spirit of sharing with you, dear readers, a glance at our backstage life, please enter for a minute or two my world of meetings.
Another day at the office… with Hillary Clinton
Friday 6 March, Hillary R. Clinton, Secretary of State of Obama’s administration was at the European parliament for a discussion with young Europeans. Funny how Ms Clinton’s visit provocates a sense of excitement in our team.
It’s a man’s world
On my way to work this campaign caught my eye: A photo of a man and a woman and the question: “Is your work valued the same?” Yes I like to think so. And that as woman I have the same career opportunities as a man. But statistics gives another picture. Women in Europe are [...]
Will we be “United in diversity” at the ballot box?
To be memorable elections generally need narratives. The recent US Presidential election had it in spades but the last three decades of European elections have, in my view, thrown up stories of their own
Downtown on the digital frontline (with Obama)
Today, I find myself in downtown Brussels in a hotel, surrounded by people without ties but all sporting the inevitable conference badges, where in a moment I am participating in a panel discussion entitled “What won it for Obama?”
Want to touch the reader!
Let’s be honest, the lion’s share of working as a web editor for the EP website means working independently: staring at the computer screen in your office, typing maniacally. Hours might pass without seeing anybody. Sometimes we are lucky and get to taste the glitz and glamour of the House, but meeting a high political figure is still almost easier than meeting the reader who we are writing for.
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