Are we starting a tradition with this second post dedicated to the most read stories of the European Parliament’s website during the last month? Possibly, time only will tell as, in many things, time remains the ultimate referer. And yes, I used this very same intro for an English essay, back in my high-school time.

If you haven’t read the first top-ten,  here how it works: every month, Cristina, our Romanian editor, collects the stats of the European parliament’s website and provides us with a full range of datas, tables, figures, just to impress us with her expert skills in using Excel (c) ™. From all this very well organized information, we all jump to the top 10 of the most read stories to discover what our visitors read. And we share this with you, dear readers.

To put things in context, in March we published 56 stories in 22 languages.  

After the first top 10, I received some critics on the “from 10 to 1″ presentation I adopted in my post. Some editors having attended one of our internal training on “How to write interesting pieces of news and stop bothering people with European affairs”, made a point in reminding me that I should start with the most interesting part, to keep the reader (you!) interested. I won’t highlight the fact that, if I keep only the interesting stuff, my posts would be twice  shorter but I will, once more, demonstrate my ability to listen at our editors as well as my flexible mindset by starting with…

I will, once more, demonstrate my ability to listen at our editors as well as my flexible mindset by starting with…

Number 10: Swedish MEPs welcome Stockholm’s “Green Capital” award

Who wouldn’t read about happy Swedish people? This city, described by Lena, our famously objective Swedish editor, as “the most beautiful island in the world”, was granted with an award from the European Commission for all efforts made to improve the quality of life. Amongst those efforts:  car tolls and cleaning up the water. We asked two swedish MEPs about this award and they seem quite happy.

Number 9:  What’s on the agenda in the March Strasbourg session?

As our most faithful readers know, the Plenary sessions are our “prime-time”, with most of our visits taking place during those weeks. Every Monday, we publish an intro story to the Plenary week, summarizing the most important points on the working agenda of the Members.

In March, we had two Plenary weeks, to compensate the cancelled one in June due to the European Elections. This story concerns the first one (from 9 to 12 March) and some points were: G20 summit, transports, videogames, employment policies, online gambling, budget…

Number 8:  Rights for shoppers – MEPs back public consultation

This is an interesting piece: the Parliament’s Internal Market Committee hold a public hearing on how to boost shopper’s confidence on the high street and the internet. Then, they proposed to all European citizen to send their suggestions directly to them (in any of the 23 official languages) – yes, this is a public consultation. We don’t know how many people did so, but I’ll try to figure out. Promised.

Number 7: What’s on 2-8 March?

This article is the equivalent of our #9 above, except it concerns a “political groups” week. During those weeks, MEPs gather within their group to prepare their political positions ahead of the Plenary week. We use those stories to tease on what we intend to publish during the week on the website.

Number 6:  Iceland, other Nordic states cast an eye towards EU

I remember Pavel, our Czech editor who wrote the synopsis for this story, telling us there was so much to say about this event.  This first “Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum” – eg when Members of Nordic national Parliaments meet MEPs – was about the financial crisis (especially in Iceland), the relationships with EU, fishery policies. The story comes with a small slide-show and interesting quotes.

Some say there are interesting studies on the back of those cereal boxes. Source: Aggtastic on Flickr

Number 5 – Hillary Clinton at EP stresses need for climate action in Q&A exchanges

Mrs Clinton’s visit to the European Parliament was a big event for us. The “Town hall” style of her debate (when everyone in the audience can raise one’s hand to ask a question, as Barbara, our Spanish editor did), the curiosity for the new Obama’s administration, the live streaming of the event (if you missed it, you can watch it here) made me think it would rank higher in our top 10. Hillary, somehow, you disappointed me, I’m sorry to say.

Number 4: EU hopes of Croatia, Turkey, FYROM under scrutiny Wednesday afternoon

This was published during the first March Plenary and is a typical “Keys to the debate” story. In those, we give the main elements of a report or a debate before it takes place during the Plenary, with a link to all the sources and a direct access to the streaming. Enlargement sells well, as our anti-spam engine proves everyday, and this story was no exception to the rule.

Number 3:   United in diversity: Rules for the European Parliamentary elections

This story was a request from a commentator on this blog. We were pleased to oblige, as it allows us to explain why the European elections are organized under a basic set of rules with most of the details left to the Member States. Hence the voting days which differ (from 4 to 7 June this year, by the way) amongst EU countries. Our dear trainees are working on a sequence of three to four stories we will publish in the coming weeks, answering to the FAQ received by the Correspondence with citizen, which is the official way to address your question to the European Parliament. But if you ask nicely in the comments, here, we usually reply.

Number 2:  Quick A- Z of MEPs’ duties and obligations

From A like attendance to Z like zeventeen, a quick review of MEPs duties. It warms my heart to see this kind of story so high in the top 10, as it seems to prove that some of our visitors do care about the coming European elections. On an editorial point of view, it’s also a nice illustration on how our editors write their stories in a different ways, working all from the same synopsis.  David, our British editor, is the only one who used the A,B,C format.

Number 1:  Poll backs more women in politics but not quotas: Tell us your views

My heart is so warm now, it could heat up a kitten factory. Judge by yourselves: the most read story of March is a participative story in which our readers are invited to leave comments – and they did. Good to see that the “more women in politics” line still grabs the attention. Cherry on the cake: users left comments to each others, my favorite extract being “I think I’ve read this research, wasn’t it published on the back of a cereal packet?“