Can it get more personal?

We are editors, we write daily news for the European Parliament. We come across all types of news and activities going on in the EP, which we pass them on to the real people, in an as comprehensible way as possible. This is our main objective of our work.
Then we have the blog here, where [...]

How much personal data is too much?

I was never a ‘personal data freak’. It’s more the other way round. I am able to give my date of birth even to an cute ice cream seller if he gives me one scoop more for free.
But my latest experience made me look at the topic of it from completely new angle and perspective. [...]

Finders keepers: the future of our audiovisual culture?

The difference now is that, perhaps, only the best artists – the most inventive, the most persistent and the most tenacious – will survive… and I guess that’s the way it ought to be.

Watching it like an outsider

My out of office automatic email reply has been on for almost three long months. Coming back last week, I felt like home again after a long trip: everything seemed so familiar, and so much different at the same time. (Almost) same faces, same corridors, more or less the same workload, but a different perspective. [...]

Not the 8 o’clock news

The process of the hearings of designated commissionners, which starts today and will go on until Tuesday 19 January, gives me a good opportunity to illustrate some of the biggest difficulties in our job as web-editors for the European Parliament website.

What lies ahead.

I won’t come back on 2009. I am not a nostalgic kind of guy. I’ll just support Steve’s claim on how this particuliar year marked many breakthroughs for us, professionally and online speaking, and I kind of feel things will be different and, possibly, a bit less exciting for us. You can’t have European Elections [...]

2009 in one picture

Fred is our talented designer and a welcome Guest blogger. Before leaving the office, he sent us his own personal view of 2009. We couldn’t resist publishing it.
So: this what 2009 looked like in the eyes of our beloved designer.

Flash back memories

Time machine keeps ticking and moving without stopping thus shifting us to different pace mode of life. Another day I found my eyes glued to a calendar, my eye balls alarming my brains that its a short time gap left till Christmas.
Well, there are lots of Christmas traditions that are practiced by a number of [...]

No you can’t have my keynote!

Can I have a gripe here? Just a little one? Ever been a presenter at a conference? I bet you’ve received that email a few days before with just a little request…

Confessions of a dangerous ungreen mind

It all started with this. There, I discovered that despite my good intentions and my claims about not having a car, eating BIO and little meat etc, I live as if I had 3,4 planets at my disposal.
Since then, my addiction to internet-based confessions, aid groups and group therapies for ungreen guilty minds hasn’t stop growing, making difficult [...]

A bit of taste..but sshh, will you?

Who can possibly contradict me when I’d say what a great novel Orwell wrote, Nineteen Eighty-Four? Of course we all like it, reading such an amazing prevision, one big brother and lots of censorship, power and “sex gone sour” fanaticism.
Well, I was born in 1984…in Romania. But never felt like this was taking much of [...]

About and against dictatorships

Lenin is dying, and talking things over with Stalin, his successor. “The one worry I have,” says Lenin, “is this: will the people follow you? What do you think, comrade Stalin?” “They will,” says Stalin, “they surely will.” “I hope so,” says Lenin, “but what if they don’t follow you?” “No problem,” says Stalin, “then [...]

Wise? Evil? Not on your nelly…

I’ve been a four-eyes since time immemorial. Well, not time immemorial really, but since fourth grade when one of my teachers caught me squinting at the blackboard and, rather than minding her own business, decided to call my mother. I was dreading this as I knew this would mean a trip to the ophthalmologist – [...]

Make your step on an unknown path

A few days ago I was discussing with my colleagues about how and why we came to Brussels. I filled in my application for auxiliary agent (temporary limited employment) the very last evening before the deadline. I found it by accident on some Czech government page.
Few weeks later I received a phone call from the [...]

All bags off!

I am Latvian. Latvians love to call themselves great singers. It is true, but unfortunately I am a bad singer. We have beautiful nature, it is also true. We have great minds and we are the best ice hockey fans, there is no doubt. I’ve heard Estonians say – if it is raining, then God [...]

Don’t forget you are a tourist!

New season, new trainees. Meet Indre, from Lithuania, and her consideration about the fleeting beauty of being a tourist.

Greetings

Greetings
There is a new gizmo in Strasbourg’s building: sterilization foam dispensers that allow everyone to quickly clean their hands. I suspect this new feature comes from the French strategic plan to eradicate all risk of a (H1N1) A flux virus in our premises. I became a big fan of those little dispensers. The Hamlet’s syndrome [...]

Being a black girl in a white world

There is a new lady in town – eg our beautiful team. The lady’s name is… Lady – an easy pun but it’s true. Meet our new trainee in this very touching first post.

Friends from work

The European Parliament is probably an institution with the biggest numbers of friendships at work. Why? One would say there is no other choice. Other would say there is a very clear choice.

At one point Belgians and other friends appeared but lion’s share of my friends were still about to pass by in my work corridors.

Coming [...]

Stand back and unwind….

Some secrets may best be left dead and buried….but our team kept its nose to the grindstone this year with the election run-up. Now it’s time to unwind pretty much like the string in the arrow after being stretched all along. We have hence decided to recharge our batteries, by breathing deeply in and out and [...]