At work
A “big f*#king deal” in Brussels
It’s not often that the really big beasts of US politics pitch up in the European Parliament, but when they do, it’s a big deal. One US President has addressed the Parliament. That was Ronald Reagan in 1985. A far more recent visitor was the current Secretary of State, former First Lady and once heir apparent to the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, who came to Parliament for a “town-hall” meeting with young Europeans. So there was the usual excitement this week when US Vice-President Joe Biden came to the European Parliament.
Behind the screen – Open day on May, 8th
If you ever wondered if we look as good IRL as in our videos and photos, if you’d like to know more about the way we work, where you can find the EP online and if you happen to pass by Brussels this Saturday, May 8th – then you definetely should come and meet us [...]
Don’t judge too quickly!
Is the era of men in grey suits governing the world coming to an end? I don’t think so, but some signs show that things are changing… Now, we should take care not to judge people too quickly on their external aspect. Here is a little experienced I made while doing an interview for the EP website.
How many MEPs use social media? A tentative update
Some rough ‘n’ ready figures on how many MEPs are using social media. Thanks to our doughty trainees for an arduous online trawl to produce these. Main finding: a qualified majority of MEPs are Facebook users!
It’s the ash cloud, stupid! – considerations on an unusual event. (Updated)
Update on Sunday 18 April – 15h Riga Time I was at Riga Airport again this morning because, guess what?, my rebooked flight has been cancelled again. I want to underline how Air Baltic people are professional and nice. The situation, in terms of mess, has positively evolved: line was only 45 minutes long. There [...]
It’s the iPad, stupid!
Now that the device is on sale, the dust has settled a bit and only Europeans (and the rest of the non-US world) are still kept on their toes until beginning of May (when the iPad will be available in stores outside the USA), I’d like to share quick thoughts about what was going on [...]
My incidental career: from “The Swedish Chicago” to the EP in ten easy-to-follow steps!
Our current group of trainees – most of whom actually seem to have packed lots of experience into their young lives – have some interesting stories to tell. In this post, our Swedish trainee, Dan, relates, among much else, how he ended up here, from a start in a “sparsely housed (Swedish) slag heap”, what he learned from aggressive Swedish press officers, how come he played a gig in front of thousands of adoring Chinese fans and why he needed to know more about the European Parliament.
How I ended up here
My name is Lyuben, 23 years old and as you probably already know, I am the Bulgarian trainee in the Unit. About one year ago, while I was having a shower after playing football I suddenly thought about doing an internship in the European parliament. A “stage” in this institution is not exactly something I [...]
Youth policy included in the 2020 strategy
The economic crisis has hit European youngsters disproportionately hard. Today, more than 5.5 million young Europeans under 25 are unemployed (21.4 %), which is twice as high as the overall unemployment rate. Earlier this month the Commission launched its new economic “10 year plan”: the so called Europe 2020 strategy, which is based on three [...]
10 things you should know about me!
1. My name is Lyuben, Bulgarian, one of the new interns in the Web Communication Unit of the European parliament. Pleased to meet you! 2. My name means ‘beloved’ in Bulgarian and I got it tattooed on my back when I was 16 3. As the Bulgarian editor – Svetla will not be at her [...]
A coffee with Klaus
An excellent idea But it would have been even better if I was not eating a biscuit when he stretched out his hand and smiled: “Klaus Welle”. Me, mouth full: “Baffabella Be Mabte”. For those who don’t know Klaus: he is the Secretary General of the European Parliament. Basically the Boss of the bosses of all [...]
10 truths about babies
Babies are born with an in-depth knowledge of Murphy’s laws
The graphical mood
They are the lucky ones who don’t deal with words but with pictures, colours and also things called CSS, html and other things we can’t spell. We are jealous because they work on Macs. We work daily with them and they proposed the photo below to illustrate their current working mood. They are the designers of [...]
I don’t believe in those e-things (or do I?)
Borderline heresy from our current trainee Davide from Italy. Maybe after hanging out with a bunch of hard-core internet obsessives such as us for a while, he’ll come round…
Social media forum debrief
“Less stories more creatively told” was one of the phrases ringing in my ears as I departed the recent “Social Media World Forum” in London. These words were uttered by Adam Parker of RealWire who was speaking about the relative merits of press releases and whether they work or not in the social media age. [...]
The Battle of the Giants: Facebook and MySpace Fight It Out
It has become a platitude to say that social networks will be the next big thing. Unfortunately, if you subscribe to this widely held view, you are patently wrong. Judging by the amount of media exposure social networks get, and not just in web-focused but also business press, they are a big thing at the [...]
A Swift look at Twitter
The so-called SWIFT agreement was not only a kind of miracle that made it possible to watch EPLive with a lot of emotion, passion and tension. It was also, for me, the occasion to better understand Twitter, on which I thought as Kurt (post of 9 Feb) before. There are hundreds and hundreds of tweets on this [...]
What do editors do?
Back to basics: we were surprised by some internal comments regarding the workload of our team of editors. Outside of our beloved 1st and 2nd floors, it seems most of our colleagues don’t have a clue what we’re doing. Yeah, we’re the “Web-guys and girls” and it doesn’t sound that tiring. Well, time for a reality check.
Obama is hiring a Twitterer…
…”But don’t mention #SWIFT in the application”. This Tweet by Kattabel made my day: Two big joys. Fist one: Obama is looking for a Social Networks Manager. Everybody knows that the American President used the social media tools trough all his campaign and continues to feed them actively, with over 7,5 Million fans on Facebook [...]
A yes, a no, a maybe…
There was a palpable air of stakes being upped in Strasbourg this week, with parliamentarians flexing their muscles and, like rookie supermen early in the film, taking themselves by surprise with their own new powers. Last time I can remember that feeling was another seminal moment: the fall of the Santer Commission in 1999.
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