DNA of the team - (c) Mr Jamespeake on Flickr

The only causes worth fighting for are lost causes

At average we are 33 ¼ years young. This youthly figure is without the trainees but includes the boss! Still a large number of us were too old to be at the meeting between Hillary Clinton and young Europeans recently in the Parliament, although some of the editors managed.

If something bothers you: confront it. If it does not work: leave it

We have a gender-balanced team with seventeen women and twelve men though the boss and editorial coordinator are both men……

Always try to get better

Interestingly, six among us have previously worked for an MEP or a group, covering the political spectrum from the left to the right.

What is worth doing, is worth doing well

Since we are working for a multilingual website, we master together all official EU-languages of course, but there is more. You can also address us in Bosnian, Catalan, Croatian, Faroese, Frisian, Galician, Hebrew, Yiddish, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, even in Calabrian and Milanese dialect and of course in American English. Moreover, one of us has plans to learn Arab and we have also an editor who can imitate Swiss German on request.

Always do what your mother recommends not to do

Are we law-obeying citizens? Well, together we have had during our collective adult lives 438 parking or speeding fines. Quite a lot for such a young unit and bearing in mind that seven among us do not use a car! We see a clear distinction here since 346 of the fines are collected by people who have sun, wine and good food in common: they are all from below the garlic frontier.

Try to get the best out of everything

One of us even stopped driving because she figured out paying taxis would be cheaper than paying the fines….

When it is worth having, it is worth working for

We studied communication science, cultural studies, economy, European studies, film art, finance, history, law, public relations, journalism, marketing, photo journalism, political science, many languages and translation, sociology and international relations. Almost everybody did more than one study, the real die-hards up to five!

Don’t let money or gadgets take you hostage

Together we have ten domestic animals and eighteen domestic kids. Here we witness another frontier: the men in the unit tend to like animals, the women don’t. The men together possess 3 cats, 1 part-time dog and 4 gold-fish. One of the fish-owners, however, wants “to get rid of his two goldfish” so if you would be able to give those two a loving, caring home, please leave your contact details below.

The glass is half-full

The women together possess 2 cats. In addition, one recently caught a mouse and one has two potential rabbits.

Do not worry about something until it becomes a problem

The kiddos most likely will continue to outnumber the animals since three more are on their way …

Don’t regret the things you have done but the ones you haven’t done

Finally, what do we do when we are not at work? We like sports! So off we go: climbing, diving, horse-riding, orienteering, wind- or kite surfing, playing rugby and paragliding.

To live and let live or only you can make you happy

Some of us really relax while playing the birbynė, archiving, ship spotting, deciphering hand-writing, filling in crosswords and flying radio-controlled airplanes.

From the evil you fear or the good you expect, you will always only get half

Still want to know more: read here how we describe ourselves or post your curiosity below. As long as your questions do not involve sex, porn and Britney Spears we may be happy to answer.

I am nothing if not a nihilist

Finally, tried to make sense of the titles? They actually reflect the life-philosophy of the team members!

Politics: ‘a male-dominated 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 paid 17% less than men. There is under representation of women in leading positions, in the board rooms, in politics, and inequalities often prevails in work and family life in general.

Just look at today’s (6 March) visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the EP. She attracted a huge interest, could any European do the same? 

For the European election campaign we were discussing ways to illustrate gender equality acheivements over the last 30 years. One idea was a photo from 1979 and one from 2009. We tried to think of current women in politics well known all over EU. Margot Wallström, and …? Not many other names came up. Famous faces we realised are often American.

Just look at today’s (6 March) visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the EP. She attracted a huge interest, could any European do the same? 

A European West Wing

EP Vice-President Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou made reference to a fresh Eurobarometer survey in an EP seminar this week: “83% of women and 76% of men agree that women can bring a different perspective to politics”. The survey also shows that women are less interested in European politics than men.

How can women’s interest and participation be boosted? I think more inspiring female politicians, leaders are crucial. Off course we real life “role models”. But imagine also the impact of TV-series? I really liked the (American) “West Wing” … Couldn’t something similar, set in Brussels, boost interest and participation? A European West Wing (“Place Luxembourg” ), with a female President Bartlet …

Just some thoughts ahead of Sunday’s International Women’s Day.  Any other ideas on how to promote women in politics?