She started reading and it suddenly felt colder.

Thursday at   EESC ‘s “literature lunch” young English author Helen Walsh was reading from her novel “Once Upon A Time in England“. We were transferred from a sunny Brussels rooftop terrace to a cold night in a tough Warrington housing estate.

She started reading and it suddenly felt colder. The tale sent shivers down the spine. You knew something bad would happen in the story - and almost wanted her to stop reading before it would.

The theme was EU Year against poverty and social exclusion. The reading gave a hint of life in a poor environment in 1970s England marked by racism, violence and blind hate – with vivid images. You felt Helen Walsh knew what she was talking about.

A clever author, good communicator she knew how to get her message through. Helen Walsh has been described as the nicest ex-drop out ever (she left school as a teenager) … yesterday’s impression was that we can only agree (by Petra & Lena).

It’s the 19th edition of the World Cup and the first ever to be held on the African continent. The tournament is the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 FIFA member countries.

I remember the atmosphere when I first came to Brussels in 2006. When the World Cup started the whole city went completely mad. There were huge flat screens with football everywhere and outside the bars people would be hanging on each others shoulders praying for a successful outcome for their team. As the tournament approached the final stages the town started to be decorated in the colours of the teams who had made it to the finals.

The great thing about watching these big sport events here in Brussels is that it doesn’t really matter who plays – There will always be a happy, loud and intensive atmosphere due to the multicultural character of the city. I’m looking very much forward to take part in all this, and I wish all the teams good luck :o)

I will briefly explain how the system works for those who are unfamiliar with it. EU competitions are usually structured in two phases. The first consist of 4 tests: verbal, numerical, abstract reasoning and situational judgement.

Even EPSO says that “candidates are also reminded of the fact that admission tests are no longer knowledge based – but rather competency-based tests. Therefore, extensive preparation time is not necessary”. It does not mean that you don’t have to prepare the tests at all… but it does recognize that even if you live for the competition, the pass for the second phase is not at all guaranteed. In my case, I hope that extensive “divine support” will work better; my mother and aunt worked very hard to get it!

The numbers give by themselves an overview of the “lottery” touch of the competition. In the one I just took we were almost 30.000 candidates; the best 315 will make it to the second round to fight for 105 positions.

On my arrival at the test centre I could only remember the discouraging figures. The place was packed, it was too hot in the room and finding a place in the waiting room was already a first success. There was a queue to leave your things in the locker, a queue to register at the reception, a queue for the toilet. A few familiar faces, some friends, and many complete strangers. If we listen to probabilities, someone here will pass. Why not me? It is like getting a free trip for you and all your friends… and I got it twice, so why not the competition, too?

To be continued (I hope).

Looks impressive... In many ways it is impressive too

So this is what it’s like? After more than a decade and a half as a journalist, I am now a source… Not a real source, you understand, I will gladly leave that to those thus inclined or employed, but one of the many invisible hands behind the EP’s web page. One of the… yes, one of the “faceless bureaucrats”. What the true “sources”, the MEPs, say and do, we publish.

Wait. Isn’t that journalism? No it isn’t, for the simple reason that we are actually employed by our “source”, but it’s certainly as close as it gets. What we publish, citizens read, either directly on the site or because journalists use it as a source for what they publish or broadcast.

And as the absolute newbie of the team (well, Marko our Slovenian editor with whom I share my office is technically even newer, but only by a fortnight, so it doesn’t really count) I can vouch for one thing: everything here is as conscientiously and objectively researched before it gets published as anything you will read in your newspaper. We don’t express our own opinion through what we write, but then journalists really shouldn’t either, should they? After all that’s why all newspapers have a dedicated “opinion” column and dedicated “columnists”.

A few people did actually ask after my first few days with the unit, not what I thought about the job (everyone asked that) but if something surprised me. Well, if I had to point out just one thing, it would be how similar it is to my former job, from the actual reporting to the very warm welcome by everyone when I first arrived…

Ok, its is my first jab at this and it isn’t supposed to be profound, - I formally dislike expressing profound thoughts unless they are really, truly profound- But it certainly is de profundis…

So, want to know exactly what happened in the EP today, yesterday or last week? It’s here. Want to know what is coming up? It’s here as well. Want to know both sides of an argument in the hemicycle? Yes, we usually offer that too and if we didn’t write about it ourselves, check our links, we have you all set up and ready for the jump.

Anyway… hello everyone, good morning and good luck.

We waited for the lifts. Half of them were under maintenance. One finally came, stopped, the door opened, then closed and it went off again. So we waited some more. Lifts clearly were broken. We waited and waited. The little red light showing a lift is asked for just went on and off all the time. The numbers showing where the lifts are at the moment started going weird, and went from -2 to 5 down to -1 or up to 11, and so on. So finally we said we should try to find some other lifts. We went across the floor to two other lifts. No, said the guard, you can’t take these. They are for visitors. You have to take the others over there. We explained that all the other eight or so lifts were broken, he said ok then you can go up here, but they only go to the fifth floor.

Met two ladies who also took the stairs and were looking for the restaurant. They disappeared through a corridor. Don’t know what happened to them.

We came to the fifth floor. The only way to go further from there was the other lifts that were still broken or the stairs, so we were brave and opted for the stairs, and started the ascent of seven floors. Out of breath after two floors up, we said, at least after this we can have a dessert without feeling guilty. We reached the 12th floor – at last – but doors wouldn’t open. There were doors alright, but no way of opening them from the staircase. What do we do? Maybe we have to go further up, the stairs continued, we climbed up and arrived on 13th floor (didn’t know it existed), managed to open a door, but ended up in a closed attic. Went down to 11th floor, managed to get out of staircase, but was in a back office storage place. Saw another lift. Met two ladies who also took the stairs and were looking for the restaurant. They disappeared through a corridor. Don’t know what happened to them.

Lost in the labyrinth (c) cuellar on Flickr

We met a guy who said, you can take the lift here and go out on the 12th floor. We went in, and the guy as well, pressed the 12 button, but the lift went down. Far down. The guy went out somewhere below ground level, at some kind of recycling storage place (are we still in the same Parliament building?), and then we thought ok now it will go up to the 12th. It went to the 2nd, and the doors opened. We were in the back of a kitchen or something (but surely there isn’t one on 2nd floor). We didn’t see anybody, and the doors closed again. Lift stood still. Doors opened again, two heads turned up around the corner looking at us. Doors closed again. (it all started to feel a bit Kafkaesque..) Then the lift made a very strange noise and all went silent.

We just want to get out of here, we said.

Ok we said, we have to try to get out of here. We pressed the door opening button, and luckily it worked. The two heads, belonging to two guys working at the kitchen, came back and asked us where we wanted to go. We looked at each other – is there ay point continuing our search for the 12th floor? – We just want to get out of here, we said. One of them guided us out through the labyrinths of the kitchen. We went through a door. We were back where we had started. Close to the non-working lifts. We didn’t check if they were working again. We quickly dismissed the idea of trying the other EP canteen. We headed straight for the front door, went out in the open air (what a relief), and walked down the street to have lunch at the Committee of the Regions.

But I must say it is quite interesting to work in a place where you still after 12 years can see rooms and corridors (or for that matter even floors) you never knew existed and where you still can manage to get lost.

So what was the big talking point in the office corridors this week? The unfolding story of the next Bulgarian commissioner? The pros and cons of body scanners in airports? The plans of the newly re-elected EU ombudsman? Get outta here! No, it was the iPad, variously the overgrown iPhone or semi-dismantled MacBook, unleashed on a far-from-unsuspecting world by geek-prophet-cum-style-guru Steve Jobs on Wednesday evening, Brussels time.

I can offer no punditry or insight here on the iPad, nor do I need to, given the unbelievable amount of hype and comment this week over this (seen the cover of the Economist this week, anyone?). However, I can offer a glimpse of WebCom collective psychology. The drooling was underway in real time on Facebook, and by the following morning there was a fully-fledged business plan to equip all web-editors with WiFi and 3G equipped iPads, along with keyboard docks of course, to allow them to ply their trade from committee meeting rooms, the train to Strasbourg and from the Starbucks on Place du Luxembourg (the main obstacle to the latter being – inexplicably – that there isn’t one yet).

Let them dream…

Listening to all this, the Director gave us his usual wry smile. He’s heard it all before. They’re flighty in their product affections, these WebCommers, but very brand loyal. There was once an absolute need to dispatch all editors to far-flung locations with MacBook Airs (that’s the ultra-skinny one), and later a painfully obvious requirement to hand out iPhones to anyone who might ever twitter on behalf on the European Parliament. He well knows you have to let the WebCommers dream of being cool Californian web-dudes now and then. It’s part of the self-image…

…And then you send them back to their five year-old desktop PCs. They’ll get on with the job, with maybe just the odd wistful glance at www.apple.com between articles.

Intrepid web reporters Olav and David before their encounter with the NATO Secretary-General

Monday afternoon was a rather unusual one for me and my colleague Olav Gade. Finally, after months of waiting we had a chance to interview Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

I have driven past NATO HQ in Brussels many times, but I had never actually been inside. The building began life as a temporary military structure in the late 1940′s and has been progressively extended since. Every country has a special wing so it feels a bit like a hospital. The building is low and spread out – architecturally striking it certainly is not but the famous NATO symbol at the front and the accompanying flags give it a certain presence and a sense of history.

The NATO press staff who accompanied us to Mr Rasmussen’s office and spoke to us as we waited for him were the very height of professionalism and courtesy. More than that, they were really relaxed and informal. I was thankful for that as I must confess to some nerves prior to the interview. I think it was more so for Olav, as he is Danish and the man we were about the meet had been his Prime Minister for 7 years. I had been half expecting saluting officers, nothing could have been further from the truth.

In all the answers I was struck by how carefully he weighed his words

Mr Rasmussen greeted us with a friendly smile and a strong handshake. His office was large but quite spartan, with a large map of Afghanistan on his desk. We sat on comfy sofas and began our questions while our photographer Pietro took some shots.

In all the answers I was struck by how carefully he weighed his words. They were very precise, no causal asides or loose remarks. He also gave them with great conviction. He made and kept eye contact – giving you the impression that you were the most important person at that moment – I’ve noticed that all successful international figures share the same quality. Let’s call it focus.

I must say, it is quite a heady experience to sit in the office of the head of the world’s largest military alliance and ask him questions about global geo-politics. Geographically, at least, our questions ranged from Brussels to Moscow via Washington and Kabul. I was quite surprised that he was so certain that the Obama Administration would send more troops – I had expected more circumspection, although he did say it was too early to talk about numbers. The part on Russia was also quite interesting I thought. He talked about common security interests, especially Afghanistan “as the Russians know well”.
 
His main message on Afghanistan is that building up the Afghan army, police, and security forces is the best way forward. He also said that parts of the country would be able to govern themselves by next year.

As we finished he engaged Olav in some friendly banter in Danish – asking him how long we had worked at the Parliament, which was a nice touch. He seems like a good bloke.

When I got home I saw on the BBC the grim sight of a Union Jack draped coffin being carried off a plane, the latest victim of the conflict. The Afghans have suffered most of all of course – and I think we owe it to them to finish what we have started and not to hand over the country to fanatics and lunatics who will terrorise them. An imperfect government (and lets face it which one isn’t) is preferable to Taliban terror.

Standstill...

This week started with a huge system failure. The first thing we noticed was that “Outlook” was not responding anymore. It left – for half a day as we discovered later – with no mention of when it would come back, and we couldn’t write e-mails to each other anymore.

It became a day of actual communication in the Web Communications unit. Our so loved synopses were brought around by helpful colleagues who had printed out several copies. Instructions were given orally and I must say – it was very pleasant to see a friendly face leaning on the doorframe of my office at regular intervals. Besides, this sudden movement was also a useful exercise for our stiff backs.  Conclusion – probably we should do this more often to change the routine.

We also couldn’t publish any articles for long time that day. Our impressive publishing machine, alias IM-Press (what an IM-Posing and IM-Portant name!), had taken an extra holiday… He – I somehow assume IM-Press is a “he” although you could draw parallels with “empress” and “princess”- obviously thought: “if “Outlook” can do it, I can as well”, although his working regime is actually much lighter.

IM-Press is one of those friends you can’t really rely on. Like a cat. Sometimes it decides to play little games with us during the plenary session – the busiest time for the Parliament and its communication teams. Of course, there’s a lot of work on his shoulders during the peak hours – everybody wants to publish something and that in 22 languages… but then IM-Press just says: “Nope, not with me…” and goes for a cigarette – or wherever, nobody really knows. This behaviour makes us incandescent.

That day he was in a particularly funny mood. He came back together with “Outlook” and then, sometime later, I realized that there were no articles at all on my page anymore. Yes, of course, then I had to play with him a little bit, talk softly, and… yes, finally it worked out.

We should have somebody here with the job description: “IM-Press whisperer”. Or we should be clear enough and express to IM-Press that he needs to impress, or he will be EX-Press!

Well, this is just for you to know. If you sometimes don’t find the long awaited articles on our website for some time and in none of the offered languages – think of our “enfant terrible” and have compassion with us.

Back to normality… until next time?

As I am sure you know, even if those elections we’ve been talking about and working for for so long are European, the electoral procedures (e.g. who can vote, how and when to vote) are handled by Member States under national laws. This explains, amongst many differencies, why some countries will vote on 4 June, others on 5, 6 or 7 June. You may imagine that gathering the datas from all 27 Member States, sorting out the elected Members of the European Parliament in existing political groups and drafting a clear picture of the new hemicycle’s balance of power will be nothing but a tremendously difficult task. So, that was the point of the meeting, as well as presenting the editorial coverage of the event by the different editorial teams.

Some members of our Web Team before the meeting.

Since Steve is in a personal mission to evaluate the real chances of a candidate country to join the EU, I was designated to speak in the name of our Unit. I sat in the front desk, next to the members of the Heads-of-Unit-secret-society, and I was written down as the last speaker on the agenda. Our Director made it clear he didn’t want us to be speaking for too long. Pressure. Last one to speak after six talkative others. Stress. When my time came, I could see in the audience’s eyes the tiredness, the hungriness, the deep desire to throw at me whatever they had to hand in order to shut me up and be on time at the cafétéria. Or maybe those were just my personal feelings. So I spoke, fast, and of course I forgot to say what I really wanted to. Hence this post.

A year ago

Last year, at the same period, our web team was producing content in 22 languages for one online platform: the Headlines of the European Parliament. True, we also wrote and published contents for some other sections of the website, but our bread and butter were the Headlines. Last May, a small team (Gaëlle, Eirini, Fred and Sophie) was finalizing the concept and design of the Elections website we opened last January. Our colleagues from the tech team were proposing a new content management system to feed the Election section. Steve and I were working on workflows analysis and new ways of coordinating things. In our minds, we had this blog project and some vague desire to go further online, to extend our presence outside of the main website. The editors, gathered in small team, were working on projects with potential: e-ambassadors, podcasts, partnerships, new editorial products. Our direct authorities were both interested and sceptic when we were mentionning Facebook or Web 2.0.

And look at now: the same team is publishing daily on no less than six editorial platforms: our Headlines, the Election website, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr. We also maintain a Googlemap with all locations of 3d installations and choices boxes in EU and a Delicious page with all websites dedicated to the European Elections we’ve heard about. We have the YaBs project – they all left the nest and some are super close to reach their target. We have a banners campaign running (2 200 different kind of e-banners shown in 27 Member States). We have interactive features where people can leave comments, vote, propose – and moderating those take a lot of time. We have multiplied our daily frequentation by three – and only a third of those new visitors comes from the e-banners campaign.

We secured a twelve-can-fit-in-room for the thirty of us. We’ll be seated tight, elbows to elbows, but we know each other well enough. You don’t need much space to twit, do you?

But six wasn’t enough. So we decided to create 22 Twitters accounts (one by language, as you guessed) to cover the Election night. From 4 to 7 June, we’ll tell you everything about this event, which is as close as covering the Cannes festival as we will ever get, in 140 signs at a time. We’ll lead you to the most interesting debates: Euronews, France 24, europarltv and some Spanish television will organize live debates at the European Parliament on Sunday, June 7th. 80 different TV channels have planned to come to Brussels to cover the results. They’ll do stand-ups in every corners of the main buildings – except in one. Our own little corner. We secured a twelve-can-fit-in-room for the thirty of us. We’ll be seated tight, elbows to elbows, but we know each other well enough. You don’t need much space to tweet, do you? We’ll be at the heart of things, we’ll update Facebook and Flickr and we will publish slideshows of voters, of backstages, of TV crews and stressed journalists. If you like men in denim carrying wires, you sure don’t want to miss that. And of course, come 22h00 and you’ll get the first results. The first comments. The first analysis.

If you like men in denim carrying wires, you sure don’t want to miss that

We are very excited by the prospect of this Election night. And I am very happy and proud of the team. It is true that we’ve been working real hard and we all would like our life back. But we’ve never been so close to our readers. While I can read everyday on the French blogosphère that people are not interested in those elections, that nothing is available to know more and other pessimistic analysis, the appetite for our content has never been so high. And we actually feel it.

That’s what I wanted to say, during this meeting.

Meanwhile, we’ve opened our Twitter’ accounts. Here is the link to the English one (you don’t need a Twitter account to follow it). If you’re interested in one specific language, they’ll all soon be available on our Election website. If you can’t wait, drop a comment below and we’ll answer with the correct url.

Oh, and don’t forget to vote.