As part of the communication campaign for the European Elections, a number of choices boxes are currently displayed within the 27 Member States. This is well and good, will you say, but what is a choice box, exactly?  Choices box are mobile devices, which are the size of big van, fully equiped with video recording material. Here is how they look like :

A choice-box in Grenoble (France) - Photo from Steve Koch's blog

(This photo is from the personal blog of Steve Koch. Mr Koch doesn’t work at the European parliament. He worked on the choices boxes’ production and had obvioulsy enjoyed the process.)

The ideas behind the choices boxes are simple: to allow European citizen to record a video message targeted at the MEPs and the candidates to the Election. The second idea is to raise some attention from the medias and from the people about the coming elections. The videos are recorded in Internet broadcasting quality and will be displayed on various giant screens in front of the European Parliament’s buildings in Brussels. A selection will be published on europarltv, of course, and possibly on the Election website at some point. Some TV channels have already asked for the first footages recorded in the choices boxes, in order to use them in debates with elections candidates.

The choices boxes are easy to use and are designed in a way so they can be accessible to disabled people, including blind people.

Is there a choice box nearby my home? are you now inquiring with this enthusiam we learnt to recognize as the proof of your commitment to this blog. Of course, there must be, if you live in the EU! Best for you would be to check the Google map we created especially for those choices boxes’ locations. It’s here. The blue pins are the choices boxes. The yellow ones are the 3D installations. Keep in mind that choices boxes are moving, so check the dates as well, to make sure you won’t miss the opportunity to record your video message. Oh, and we update the map almost every day, so it’s worth checking if another location just at your corner hasn’t been added. 

The Choices Box, “Jean la gaufre” and the backyard.

As you may imagine, all this Choices boxes concept involved a lot of logistics, from the design, the production, the technical wires and set-ups… This was handled by another team of the European Parliament, and they should really be given some credits for their patience and organizational skills. Not to forget the Communication Agency’s people, such as Steve Koch and his pals.

The hardest part, I’ve been told in a recent meeting, concerns the delivery of the Choices boxes. Imagine the paper work required by all Member States, Cities council, street officers (ah, the beauty of subsidiarity) to authorize the delivery of such a box in a public place. And the boxes are moving (so they can be used by as many citizen as possible). The choice box on a truck looks like this:

Boxes on a van - photo from Steve Koch's blog

“I have a Choice box in the back of my truck and nowhere to put it.”

Last week, a van as big as the one above, was heading to Luxembourg to deliver the awaited Choice box. Unfortunately, the chosen public space for the box wasn’t accessible. His only contact was one of our colleague from the Luxembourg information office. It was midnight and she received this call: “I have a Choice box in the back of my truck and nowhere to put it.”

The driver had a schedule: there is always a choice box to deliver somewhere, those days. He was late. It was Luxembourg, whatever that means. Our colleague lives in a small house with no yard nor garden. But wait: a glance out of the window and the idea came. Her neighbour. Precisely, her neighbour’s backyard.

So, in the early hours of the night, a fully functional choice box was delivered in the backyard of the friendly Jean la gaufre (“John the waffle”), a famous waffles seller in the exciting city of Luxembourg. The choice box stayed there for the night. In the early morning, it was moved to the place it belongs to: Luxembourg City, Place de l’Hôtel de Ville. If you pass by the area, well, just record your message and don’t forget to eat a waffle from Jean as a tribute to his real European support to the campaign ;-)!