But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I totally forget that in “normal” life I’m an official for the European Parliament. Questions from friends and family are here to remind me my “duties”. This summer, I also read a very interesting book: Jean Monnet’s memoirs.

Jean Monnet (on the left) with Robert Schuman © Conseil de l'Europe, Strasbourg - Source: Fondation Jean Monnet pour l'Europe

You’re going to think I’m a Euro geek… Well, maybe a bit, even if the reason for this reading was simply that I got this book as a gift from our Secretary General, and I hate getting a book without reading it.

Now that I’ve read it, it would be a shame not to share this experience. I doubt a lot of people will enjoy these 800 pages written in French… Here are a few quotes that I found particularly interesting, and which can be the starting point of more extensive reflexions.

• “I was convinced that we can’t go forward without a certain disorder“: It’s good to be organized, as I am… but a certain disorder is probably necessary to be creative. I’ll try to make use of this in the next months!

• “Sovereign states are not any more the framework where today’s problems can be solved“; “The aim of the Council of the EU is to find a common view and not to look for compromises between national interests“: interesting enough in today’s context, where every country is trying to get the best possible deal for itself in Brussels… Don’t we forget our common interest while doing that? And how to make people interested in what Europe does if the focus stays purely national?

• “People only accept change when it’s absolutely necessary, and they see this necessity only in crises“: Well, that’s just a bit of hope in the crisis Europe is facing (I mean the question of the sense and aim of the EU, not the economic crisis)”The difficulties were not in the things but in the spirits”: Hey, that’s why communication is so important!

• “Institutions, once created, have their own force which goes beyond people’s will. But only the people can change and enrich the things the institutions then transmit to future generations“: Nothing to add, that defines the limits and potentialities of our role as civil servants.

• “Nothing can be really finished, and it’s a talent to know where to stop before too much care destroys the balance achieved“: This quote made me think about perfectionism and helped me to become aware of certain problems in the way I deal with my daily work. I discussed it with my colleague Anete, who explained me the Pareto principle. That made me think about efficiency at work…

Is he our new guru?

The meeting was, in my opinion, very interesting since the guy knew very well what he was talking about and gave straight answers to the questions we brought up – even if he was perhaps a tad less unambiguous on privacy issues. But I won’t blame him, he was representing his company, was up front about that and we shouldn’t forget it. He gave useful insights on how Facebook is going to develop, what other institutions do and what we, the European Parliament, could do to improve our Facebook-presence.

I picked up some facts and statistics to give an overview of where we stand in the Facebook-galaxy (some of them come from our boss, Steve).

I was sitting next to Fred, our graphist, during the meeting... This is the way he takes notes. Well, my notes are so boring compared to that...

We can be proud of what we do on social media, for sure:

• As far as we can tell, the European Parliament is Europe’s highest ranking public political institution on Facebook
• The European Parliament page brings together the largest online community interested in EU politics – the second one being an unofficial EU page with about 43 000 fans.
• In the world rankings of public political institutions on Facebook, the European Parliament seems to be second only to the White House
• The European Parliament is the indisputable world leader in the use of Facebook by a parliamentary institution

But, nevertheless, we shouldn’t congratulate ourselves too much and forget going on… because our 75 000 fans are nothing compared too:

• 272 000 on the Democracy UK page, which was launched to debate political issues at a national level.
• 455 000 fans/friends of all MEPs on Facebook (It’s even probably more than 500 000 now)
• 9.3 millions fans for Obama
• 9.6 millions fans for Lady Gaga
• 400 million Facebook users worldwide
• 500 million EU citizens
• 500 billion minutes spent on Facebook every month in the world

Are social media reserved for young people? © European Parliament / Pietro Naj-Oleari

The use of social media has been very much discussed during the seminar. It shows that it has become unavoidable. I can remember another seminar about one year ago, when I arrived in the web communication team. It was very complicated to convince our colleagues from other units that social media are not a useless tool for a few geeks. Social media were just out of the debate – “Why should we discuss it, it has no power and the European Parliament doesn’t have anything to do with it!”

I wouldn’t say that the situation is 100% different today, but I see an improvement. People don’t question the use of social media any more – even if they still question their utility and outreach. In my opinion, it means that social media have become an integral part of the European Parliament’s communication toolbox. The work done during the elections campaign was fruitful. Some colleagues still don’t believe in what we do, but at least they accept that we do it and see it as a (minor) communication channel. The next step will be to convince them of the incredible power of social media.

Social media will never replace traditional communication methods. A good conclusion because everyone can understand what he/she wants to understand.

Social media: who's in favour, who's against? Vote during our directorate seminar. ©European Parliament / Pietro Naj-Oleari

Social media will never replace traditional communication methods, they’re just aside these. That was more or less the conclusion of the seminar. A good conclusion because everyone can understand what he/she wants to understand.

And I want to hear a positive sign in this conclusion. Our hierarchy doesn’t want to hurt our old-fashioned colleagues but they want us to keep going.

If young people are the future of Europe, then social media are very important – not only for the European Parliament or for communication purposes, but also for the sake of the European democracy. Because press releases, traditional websites, newspaper articles and open air events will never reach this particular audience at a European level. Is Facebook going to be the beginning of a true European public sphere? Let’s hope it will be the conclusion of next year’s seminar…

Well, that’s not (yet?) really the case in the EP. There are already some frontrunners of course (not to mention the Greens), but most of the politicians are still wearing suits and ties. They represent the voters and, in our collective imagination, they should therefore by serious. And the external sign of seriousness is still, for a man, to wear a tie.

[It's quite different for women. The social norm is not so strict - or maybe I don't understand very well because I'm not directly concerned! Unfortunately, they're still underrepresented at a high level.]

No, he's not an alien. Even it's he's an incredible guy, he also enjoys joking and watching TV... Don't judge too quickly!

Tell me what you look like and I’ll tell you who you are

Our brains are very much conditioned by the external aspect. While passing through the endless corridors of the EP building, you can easily imagine who are the people you meet. Black suit and dark tie? An usher. Dark suit and blue tie? An MEP or a high ranking official. Suit and white shirt, without tie? Probably the assistant of an MEP. Colourful sweater with old sport shoes? Well, an MEP from the Greens or the European United Left (GUE)…

But we should take care because we can have some surprises. This week, together with my colleague Pavel, I met a small guy with a purple shirt and a bright smile. Nothing particular physically, maybe just something indefinable in the eyes…

A guy like you and me… but former Commander of the ISS

The guy was Frank De Winne – astronaut and former chief of the International space station (ISS). You can imagine how smart, physically fit and experienced you should be to get such responsibilities. He was pilot in the Belgian Air force, got numerous decorations, then he became astronaut and finally first European to become Commander of the ISS.

Frank De Winne could have been a perfect example of these guys walking around full of arrogance and self-consciousness. He could have bringing us down while explaining all the technical details we would have never understood. But, in the contrary, he was just there, joking with everyone, explaining the day-to-day life in the ISS, drinking a glass of champagne. Astonishing.

Behind humour, a strong personality

He didn’t try to make himself important and preferred to make the audience laugh. “After a few days aboard the ISS, I thought I was experienced enough to go as quickly as possible from the European to the Russian area, which are separated by a long corridor. Arriving at the end of the corridor with full speed, I saw the chief of the Russian mission standing in the middle of the door – and I suddenly found out that I didn’t know how to stop…” There is no need to describe the crash and how Frank De Winne should have felt at this moment…

It’s possible too be smart, cool and funny at the same time

He also explained us how astronauts play with bubbles of orange juice floating in the air, and why it was so difficult to spend six months in the space: there is no way to watch the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix live (he’s Flemish and fan of cycling, of course)…

What did I learn from this interview? The role of the EU in space exploration, but not only that. Much more than that indeed. I learnt that you should never judge too quickly, that you should never judge on the external aspect. And that it’s possible too be smart, cool and funny at the same time.

[NB: And of course, we didn't meet him by chance, but we had a slot for an interview]

Do we want to stay isolated at the top of the EP ivory tower in Brussels? Or do we want to be open to Europe? Photo by Annette Poro on Flickr

When I applied for a competition three years ago, I was just finishing my studies, searching for a job in France. I had no connection in Brussels, no idea about how it is to work for the European institutions. The competition was a great opportunity, a big adventure for me. Month after month, it became more and more real. The final result gave me the chance to come to Brussels. Otherwise, I would probably have never come. I would have stayed at a local level, communicating for municipalities or regional authorities (an extremely interesting job, which was very complementary what I now do in Brussels).

The only thing I would like to wish to people is to take the opportunity, to go ahead and to enjoy the same experience. Europe needs young, creative and dynamic people. Europe needs people from all over its territory, not only from Brussels. And Europe is there for citizens, Europe should base on its citizens. EU institutions should be open institutions, accessible to everyone. Brussels shouldn’t be too far away in the heads of millions of citizens who could have the skills and the desire to work for the institutions!

Europe needs people from all over its territory.

I see the open competitions as the lung of the European institutions. They have – in my opinion – two aims.

The first one is to recruit specialists from different sectors. A lot of them are already in Brussels, working in or around the institutions. EU needs their skills, their commitment and their knowledge of its functioning and issues.

The second one is to attract citizens from the four corners of Europe. If we want institutions not in their ivory tower, closer to the people, if we want to destroy the bad image of “those in Brussels”, if we want to go to the citizen, we should first open our doors to them.

The European institutions have been too much separated from Europe in the last decades. Let’s hope it will change. Is the reform of the EPSO system (which organizes the competitions) a step in the right direction? I don’t know. Wait and see, and good luck to all the competitors!

Our production on this blog - from July 2008

As communication geeks (and freaks), we always look at the stats. How many people did read this article? What was the traffic on the hearings website?

But we don’t look at ourselves that much… What about changing the point of view and take us, member of the web communication unit of the European Parliament, as target? Let our readers rest for a while, let them in peace. And let’s make a little assessment of our own production on this blog.

First statement: 201 posts have been posted on this blog since July 2008. A quite great amount if we look at the fact that it really started in February 2009, in the run up to the European elections. Since then, 176 posts have been posted, which makes about one every two days. The record is for October last year with 41 posts – which makes twice posts a working day!

EP officials are also thinking creatures, not only blind machines (or am I misinterpreting?)

Second statement: Guess what? The most used category is called “At work“, with more than 35 % of the posts. Not a big surprise since this blog is run by a team of professionals… The second category is “Thinking allowed“, which shows that EP officials are also thinking creatures, not only blind machines (or am I misinterpreting?). Personal posts aren’t that popular, but for that, we have our personal blogs, don’t we?

Third statement: Who’s writing on this blog? It’s very unequal. On average, every editor wrote 5 posts. But if we take out the three most prolific writers (who account for more than half of the posts, with a special mention for the first one who wrote… 53 posts), the average falls to 2.4 posts per person… Some people didn’t write anything, some others only every six months. C’mon guys, our readers would like to know a little bit more about you! (By the way, I’m not very prolific either…)

It’s quite difficult to analyse these figures… There are very different opinions in the team about this blog, perhaps also different views of how it should look like and why it is important in our communication strategy. And, as in every team and for every project, there are some frontrunners and some stragglers. But maybe we could write a post asking colleagues about how they consider this blog?

 Just look at one little example: the project I’m supposed to manage with another colleague. It can easily become one’s nightmare…

How to get out of this mess before my hairs get totally grey? (© MumbleyJoe on Flickr)

What is it about? It’s about the nomination procedure of the new European Commission. The approval of the European Parliament is necessary before the college of commissioners can take its office. The European Parliament will organize hearings of the candidates – and we should launch a website gathering all the information about the procedure. Great idea, for sure, but it takes time… We launched the project in July, without knowing which procedure would apply – the one from the Lisbon treaty or the one from the Nice treaty. We had to prepare both possibilities. Double work.

 When should this website be online? Good question. As soon as the list of candidates is made public, for sure. But what does it mean exactly? We didn’t have any timetable, it all depends on the schedule and the will of the head of states and governments. It was first foreseen for the beginning of October, then the end of October, then the beginning of November…

 Who‘s doing this project? Different directorates general work on it, and that’s new for all of us. How to organise ourselves? Who’s leading the project? Who should decide when we don’t agree? Or should we decide together all the time, with the risk of running out of time?

 How should we do it? In 22 languages of course, which means that for every little correction, every little add we didn’t plan weeks in advance, we should ask 22 editors to dedicate a little bit of their already overloaded time to our new website. It’s probably the best way to be hated in the team!

Conclusion: We had to prepare a website in a very short time, without knowing exactly for when, without having all the content and that in 22 languages please. Separately, every uncertainty is not too difficult to manage, but all together, it becomes very quickly a huge mess. You can add some administrative issues on top of that (they’re the same in every administration…), and you can understand how I get my first grey hairs.

It's difficult to find new challenges after the elections... Photo by Koshyk on Flickr

And now? What’s next? After the tension of the election night (“Here are the first results! Tweeeeeeeeeeeet please! Asap!”), we’re coming in what I call a “post-electoral depression”. Nothing matters any more. Day-to-day work seems quite boring. What’s the aim of the articles we write, if not to increase the turnout in the elections?

On top of that, after having been in the “centre of the world” – or the “centre of Europe”, with hundreds of thousands of visits (i.e. readers) each day, nobody cares about us now. The stats are going down. We will become anonymous again on the web. No banner campaign, no Google adwords. Well, is that strange to be a normal citizen, waking up each morning for going to work instead of changing the world!

Retrospectively, overmotivation is probably dangerous. We should now wait five years until we can experience again an electoral campaign. For the time being, I will go on holidays. Just to forget a little bit the work, just to remind me that there are some wonderful things in the world which have nothing to do with my job. And when I will come back, I will be highly motivated for the next challenges. Because fortunately, we will find new goals, new projects, new deadlines … La vie est un éternel recommencement, en somme…

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…

A look at the centre of the world... © youdontsmellbad on flickr

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 two languages isn’t very spectacular when your colleagues speak as much as 3, 4, 5, even 10 languages!!!

Well, I could’nt say my colleagues don’t pay attention to me, no, that’s the contrary. All of them know about my place of birth, in Brittany. They all were there for some holidays. They all know about the town I’m now living in, in North of France. Most of all speak French fluent, and, and, and… It’s perhaps a victory for the “francophonie”, a victory for all people defending the French language in the world, the people who are fighting for the French “exception culturelle”, for the French tourism and the wonderful French landscapes… But that don’t motivate French people to have a look across borders. The characteristic French people are proud of their country; sometimes, it’s like they’re in the centre of the world.

I’m French. I was born in France, grew up in France. Nothing but usual. Learned then German – what a strange idea… Went then to Germany for the study, two years long. Really unusual in France. Now, when I’m back home, I feel like an alien, speaking fluent another language (will see now how long my German remains better than my English – could probably hold one or two years?), having travelled in several European countries and worked in China once…

But in other countries – tell me if I’m wrong -, that’s usual. I had this feeling in Germany for example. In Brussels, that’s more than usual. Your Lithuanian colleague knows the little town you’re born in but you don’t know the main city of his country (Please don’t say Riga…)? Well, looks like bad. On top of that, French people are apparently famous for being arrogant: so I have to integrate myself while breaking this image. I have to go to the people, I have to communicate in another language… That’s the point: speaking German is good but we work in English in our unit.

So my English is in the centre of two main challenges, a professional one (working with my colleagues, writing good articles, understanding what’s going on) and another one which I’d like to name “socialization” (integrate myself in a team, interact with colleagues, being happy while going to work…). How to reach that? I formally take you as witness of a commitment…

Six months. I give me six months in order to speak enough English for the ordinary activities at the European Parliament. Do you know how long it takes me to write this post? I let you guess… I promise to cut this time by 30 % by September 2009. It’s like the climate change – I have to invest now in order to save energy in the future. It’s the only way to sustainable working in the European Parliament!