The journalists followed the nowadays trend on getting the news. Not searching, but getting. Searching is too old-fashioned. Nowadays the mountain comes to Mahomet, via Facebook and Twitter. The same way the EP news came to you this week.

Haiku goes global ©nobuojp

Monday: you find out on Facebook that the Bulgarian commissioner-designate will be evaluated by the Parliament. If approved, she will be in charge with development and she will be expected to take action on Haiti. If you have time to check the fan’s comments you read that she is an economist and was vice-president of the World Bank and that people trust her. Later in the afternoon you read that last year’s Sakharov prize laureate, Oleg Orlov, leader of Memorial, was arrested in Russia, and that the EP’s president called on the Russian authorities to “cease the heavy-handed treatment of peaceful demonstrators”. The fans comments inform you that Mr Orlov is the second Sakharov laureate to be jailed, after Lyudmila Alexeyeva was arrested on New Year’s Eve . On Twitter you read that the Balkans are “still suffering” from Yugoslav wars, and if you follow the link you will be able to read an interview on this subject with the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Tuesday: you probably already knew that the European Parliament regularly examines the candidate states’ readiness for EU membership. But you can find out the citizens’ views on enlargement in the 200+ fan comments. The day’s bad news: we may have to raise taxes in the next years. If you don’t click on the link you don’t find out that the MEPs asked for the pensions’ reform. On Twitter you read that bankers have lost their friends in Davos and that MEPs ask support for small firms while tackling the crisis. If you are a fan of the EP president on Facebook, you find out that he paid his first official visit to a founding EU Member State – France.

In late afternoon you cannot believe you eyes: the Parliament’s communication team published on the EP official website the comments on enlargement from their Facebook fans.

Wednesday: you are informed on Facebook that the hearing of the Bulgarian commissioner-designate is broadcast live. Unfortunately not on Facebook, but on the EP website. So, follow the link!

Thursday: first news on Facebook: Parliament members look at how cooperation in organ donation could help to overcome shortages. In late afternoon you cannot believe you eyes: the Parliament’s communication team published on the EP official website the comments on enlargement from their Facebook fans. On Twitter you read that the commissioners’ hearings are over, and you can see the atmosphere caught by our photographer in a photo gallery on Flickr.

Friday: On Twitter you find a link to the verbatim reports of the commissioners’ hearings and another one to the parliamentary committees’ evaluations of the candidates. On Facebook you read that during the following week MEPs meet in plenary in Strasbourg. The video proposed in the link shows you the main points on the MEPs agenda, among which the controversial transfer of European banking data to the American authorities.

Did you miss any information by not reading the official news? Find out yourself on the EP “Headlines”!

Stalin starred in jokes because of his cruelty © Andy Ventura Flickr

Stalin starred in jokes because of his cruelty and murderousness. As a child, back in Romania, I keep overhearing this kind of jokes whispered by adults who didn’t dare say them aloud. In the countries of the ex-soviet block people had few means of fighting the dictatorship and the horrors of the communist regime.

Telling political jokes was one of them. But one had to take good care to whom or where one told them. The reason why is summarised in a… joke: “A joke contest is organized in the Socialist Republic of Romania. The first winner got a prize of 20 years in prison. Second prize was 10 years of forced labour.”

These jokes were largely circulated in the countries of the ex-soviet block. Everyone knew of the horrors of stalinism and communism, but very people had the courage to tell them aloud. Some of the brave ones created in Russia, in the ’80s, Memorial, an organisation to remember the victims of Stalin repressions. They also fight for nowadays freedoms and rights, as long after Stalin’s death murders continue in Russia.

Today, Memorial won the European Parliament’s Sakharov for the Freedom of Thought.

Good news: Calling from abroad is cheaper from 1 July

So, what news was favoured by our readers in April? After a vote taken by the European Parliament, from 1 July 2009 Europeans will only pay a maximum of 43 cents per minute for outgoing and a maximum of 19 cents per minute for incoming roaming calls in EU. Good news. But “a cocktail of electromagnetic fields” coming from Wi-Fi networks, phone masts, power lines and GPS receivers can be dangerous for your health. Troubling news…

Europe’s trade with developing countries and its beneficiaries also sounded good to our readers, who wanted to know as well what makes a good MEP? Quality education for the children of immigrants and efficient road tyres to cut fuel bills and CO2 emissions proved as well to be interesting subjects for Europeans. And our photo project made it again to Top 10; this time, the chosen photo was taken in Romania, by a Greek amateur photographer living in Brussels.

AIDS therapeutic vaccine will be available in four or five years. This is what French Nobel winner Luc Montagnier said on 1 April in a conference on biomedical research organised by the European Parliament. April Fools Day? No, excellent news. No wonder our article was among the best in terms of views.

Last, but not least, our readers liked to read about the parliamentary elections in Europe’s poorest country Moldova – which made the headlines in lots of newspapers because the protests after – and about the women issues MEPs tackled in the Women’s Rights Committee.

Top 10 articles in April

1. MEPs force big cuts in mobile prices
2. Man-made electromagnetic fields: are we at risk?
3. Europe’s trade with developing countries: Who really benefits?
4. What makes a good MEP?
5. Children of immigrants: Yes to new language, No to segregation
6. MEPs back efficient road tyres to cut fuel bills and CO2 emissions
7. “Ploiesti Refineries” chosen as best photograph!
8. AIDS: Therapeutic vaccine “in four or five years” says Montagnier
9. Europe’s poorest country Moldova holds election
10. Interview with Anna Záborská – Women’s Rights Committee Chair

The ten links go to the English version of the articles. But you can switch to any of the 22 languages we write in by selecting it in the list box at the right-top corner and clicking on the “OK” button.

Our main job consisted of waiting. Here, Manja was waiting for Mr Colombo...

When you want to meet a VIP (and you are an editor for the European Parliament’s website) you have to respect several rules. First, you inform the organizers and get an appointment, second, you go there half an hour in advance just in case and third you wait, without disturbing the VIPs interacting with each other.

Before I met Pat Cox face to face, I thought him stern and distant. I didn’t expect an ex-EP president to be so friendly and helpful. He shook my hand for one whole minute, while I was doing my best to explain what I wanted from him. He was very happy to meet us, the editors for the Parliament’s website. And he was quite docile moving around in different kinds of light, so that our photographer, Pietro, can take the best photo of him. “The European Parliament makes continental scale laws and budgets that impact on the citizens’ day to day lives”, said Mr Cox. His remarks were quick and sharp: “If it matters to you, this is the place you can make it happen”. Irish clarity and conciseness. So, go and vote!

I had never met a lord before meeting Lord Plumb last week. I was conscious about the way to address him (Mr Plumb, Lord Plumb, Sir Plumb?) and whether I had to bow while shaking his hand. I remember having met Prince Charles while I was working for the British Council; I did have to take a bow. But a Lord is not a Prince after all. Even so, Lord Plumb is really tall, which makes him even more impressive. I was quite surprised when he treated me as an equal.

Lord Plumb told me about peace, which is no longer such an obvious benefit. Everybody expects peace in Europe and thinks it inherent. But things were different in the past.

When you talk about the benefits of the EU and what MEPs do for citizens, you mention the last, more visible achievements: low roaming rates, equal opportunities, free movement etc. Lord Plumb told me about peace, which is no longer such an obvious benefit. Everybody expects peace in Europe and thinks it inherent. But things were different in the past. The British Lord experienced World War II, and is still affected remembering its atrocities. “I find it very difficult to understand why people as old as me who lived through the last world war, and some people still around who lived through the one before, don’t recognize the fact that the only way we can work is to work together in trade terms, in social terms and in political terms”, he told me. He said he was a committed European and was extremely convincing in saying it.

... and Barbara is waiting for Mr Baron Crespo

Last week I was also lucky to talk with the only two women-presidents of the European Parliament – both French. Simone Veil was also the first president after the first European elections, in 1979. 16 years after she left the Parliament she still felt at home on its premises. She took her time to explain the importance of the common work of Europeans, now more then ever, so EU can come out of the economic crisis in the best way.

Still an MEP, Nicole Fontaine knows that the Parliament can do a lot for the citizens and that this institution’s role cannot be ignored (“le rôle du PE est tout à fait incontournable”). Ms Fontaine also mentioned democracy, which is only a dream in other countries. She wants the Europeans to realise how important it is to be able to vote. In Chile, she said, people were enthusiastically queuing to vote. She called the EU states “bien ingrats de ne pas se rendre compte de la chance qu’ils ont de pouvoir voter”, thinking probably of the low turnout in the last European elections.

My colleagues Bárbara, Manja and Anete interviewed the other ex-presidents. Up to them to tell you about it. In the meantime you can read the president’s reasons by clicking on ”meet the presidents” in the central column on our Elections website.

All night long I had nightmares about being stripped bare by security officers who were looking for plastic guns in my pockets.

This morning I feared coming to work. Not because a man with a gun robbed yesterday a branch of the ING bank in a building of the European Parliament. But because I feared meeting the security people in the morning, at the entrance of the building I work in. All night long I had nightmares about being stripped bare by security officers who were looking for plastic guns in my pockets (plastic being not detected by the security gates).

The robber was disguised as a woman © Bunny Gun Girl

Newspapers, blogs and social networking websites raged yesterday about the “failure” of the European Parliament’s security system and staff, allowing a bank robbery to happen on the premises while in a neighbouring meeting room, Mikhail Gorbachev, Prince Albert of Monaco and other VIPs attended a conference.

How was that possible? With loads of security devices and well prepared security staff supposed to protect the most democratic institution in the EU? Some voices called the event incredible but unforgivable. But I call it possible.

Anyone can pass through the security gates with a fake plastic gun in his/her pocket (supposing it was fake). The security is concerned about real weapons, the detectors have been built to find metal, not plastic. And you can’t strip bare all the 10.000 visitors per day at the European Parliament, just to check whether they have a toy gun on them. You also cannot prevent the people to enter the premises. “This is the European Parliament and its buildings must remain open and accessible to European citizens”, said yesterday the European Parliament’s spokesman, Mr Jaume Duch, “one hundred percent security can never be guaranteed.”

The investigations continue. The video recordings from security cameras in the Parliament’s corridors are now checked and everyone hopes that the thief will be caught. I hope that the (probable) increased security measures won’t take too much of my time every morning when I come to work.