What are we doing? What are we working for, and – more important – how? We try to explain what happens at the European Parliament. We want to provide citizens with reliable, high quality and very interesting information. What is the new proposal on tyres labelling about? Who’s for in the House, who’s against? And why? What should it change for the all-day life of European citizens?

Our articles are full of draft reports, chairmen, plenary sessions, commissions, agreements… But we try to keep it short, I promise you! In fact, it’s not always easy to find a “citizen friendly angle” (one of our key words in the unit…). Fact and figures: that’s what we’re talking about. But it doesn’t interest people or journalists sometimes…

Is that really what people expect to see at the European Parliament? © takitimu on flickr

I’m always happy when, in the morning, listening to the radio, I heard something about the European Parliament. Well, we’re communicators, we pay attention to the result of our work, and we’re defending the brand we stand for! But if – fortunately – we heard something about the European Parliament, it’s not about the decisions it took but about… the prank of a MEP, political divisions or spectacular events.

Let’s take three examples to make it clear. In August last year, the ceiling of the hemicycle in Strasbourg collapsed: huge topic for the mass media, which are waiting for spectacular and symbolic events. In December, the Sakharov Prize was awarded to the Chinese Hu Jia; newspapers, radio and television spoke about not because of the prize itself, but because of the Chinese diplomatic protest. And more recently, the EP draw the attention of the press because of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who called anew the gas chamber during World War II a “detail of history”.

And what about the climate change package? The roaming directive? The cod stocks? Their attendance in the media couldn’t be compared with their significance for the all-day life of the citizens…

On the one hand, it’s a bit disappointing for us. Is our work insubstantial? What do people want to hear about the EP? Is anybody interested in what MEPs decide? Aren’t policies as important as politics? We could feel useless sometimes.

On the other hand, political controversy is highly needed in Strasbourg and Brussels, in order to raise the curiosity and the interest of people toward the European policy making level. That’s perhaps the way to show the voters that their choice has an incidence on the direction the European Union takes. And finally: as civil servants, we work for the MEPs, who are directly elected by the citizens. We’re the tool, not the brain! And we can’t take the role the MEPs have to play…