european parliament
Our recipe for proving that the world is smaller than you think
In how many steps a (plastic) secret agent can reach its target? Well, if you are as playful as we like to be, Evita explains you here our latest project – thatwill start Saturday 9 May in Brussels.
Europe is nothing but a big bad wolf
Once upon a time there was a big bad wolf called Europe (the taurus story is a myth as we all know). While walking in the forests, it devoured all human beings it crossed: bad and good. They made him move to the left, to the middle or to the right -according to where his stomach weighed heavier.
A bilingual chicken, a naked chicken
The “beauty queen” of the communication campaign for the elections is the chicken. By popular request. One of them even got a love letter in the form of graffiti: “Je t’aime, poulet” (I love you, chicken).
Two crises that showed why the EP matters…
One editor, two crisis. Olav tells us the stories behind the story of two issues he covered during this first semester.
Yikes! Suddenly we are doing all this stuff
Seems only yesterday… It’s not long since we were in the happy position of being the ones pushing for all kinds of trendy, new-fangled ideas against a hidebound establishment. This blog seemed like a distant mirage – it was just too far outside the comfort zone of the way European institutions do communication to be [...]
The importance of being normal
Another meeting, another colleague teaching me about “what is normal”. What normal people are. “If we want to communicate the European Parliament, we have to understand how normal people think.” Not again…
Fact and figures vs. scandal: what are we working for?
What are we doing? What are we working for, and – more important – how? We try to explain what happens at the European Parliament. We want to provide citizens with reliable, high quality and very interesting information. What is the new proposal on tyres labelling about? Who’s for in the House, who’s against? And [...]
Ten most wanted stories of March
Hand-crafted as always, surprising as ever, interesting for everyone and coming straight from Alpha Centauri’s closest neighborhood, please meet our monthly editorial top 10.
Why vote? A question of generation perhaps
Just a quick one today, based on an observation about something we have just published on the site. We pounced on a lunch held in honour of former EP Presidents held last week to ask them why they think people should vote in European elections. (Perhaps they could improve on our ten reasons, which have given [...]
10 most read Stories in February
Most of websites do that automatically. We belong more to the handcraft school: we polish things manually, we shape them, we give them little names, we’re reluctant to give them away because we’re never sure they are quite finished. But for you, dear readers, here is our monthly top 10. 100% handmade.
MEP internet superstar
Who’d have thought it possible? The internet’s most popular video was this week a recording of a three minute speech by a Conservative MEP. Yes, that’s a speech by an MEP… With 1.4 million views at the time of writing
The devil is in the quote
It is gray and rainy Brussels Tuesday morning. Would it be really unjust to say it is just Tuesday morning in Brussels? Three people leave their cosy editorial lair on Rue Montoyer and go hunting. Armed with one light dictaphone between two, supported with a heavy pro DSLR operated by our Italian condottiere-photographer, shielded with [...]
“It’s Your Choice” goes viral
Well, it didn’t take long… EP-webeditors’ congratulations to Cédric Puisney (a.k.a. l’Européen jamais content) for his reinterpretations of the European elections campaign banners, posted yesterday. Nice work, and the bar set suitably high for future satirists… The emails were flying around the office this morning, with everyone selecting their favourite from Cédric’s versions of the [...]
Waiting for the New Year
We had several New Years already this year. In the beginning of January we celebrated the New Year we all know, in mid-January it was the orthodox New Year, at the end of January it was the Chinese New Year and last week – the Iranian one. However, there is still one to come – [...]
A big cheese and sacred cows
Afficionados of the elections website may have noticed our debate of the week focuses again on economic matters. Of course. “It’s the economy, stupid”, it was once famously observed – and that was in relatively good times. Right now, with the sense of slight unreality with which the current crisis was perhaps initially viewed (all [...]
Guest blogger: British media and the Misses
Since the Web Team opened this blog, our colleagues have looked on, intrigued by an exercise which reveals EP officials as real people rather than the euro-automata of popular myth. And sure enough, some want in. So, although this is, and will remain, the collective blog of the web team, we will be delighted to welcome the occasional guest blogger with something to say. Today no less a figure than the deputy spokesperson of the EP, who has had it up to HERE with some coverage of Parliament.
About the difficulty of being French in a multicultural unit
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 [...]
A Cornish tale to savour
I have become a fan of 24 year old Sarah from Cornwall. The other day someone at work sent me the link to her video “UK & EU Date” which I really liked. Basically it starts with her looking through the personal ads of a newspaper where she eventually stumbles across a “strong, protective, multi-cultural entrepreneur who loves [...]
Another day at the office… with Hillary Clinton
Friday 6 March, Hillary R. Clinton, Secretary of State of Obama’s administration was at the European parliament for a discussion with young Europeans. Funny how Ms Clinton’s visit provocates a sense of excitement in our team.
It’s a man’s world
On my way to work this campaign caught my eye: A photo of a man and a woman and the question: “Is your work valued the same?” Yes I like to think so. And that as woman I have the same career opportunities as a man. But statistics gives another picture. Women in Europe are [...]
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