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Synopsis for Today

Meeting this week MEPs from TRAIN committee debated the European Commission proposals to modernize selection procedure of trainees in the European Parliament. They agreed with reporters Indre Liepuoniute (Social Singers Group, Lithuania) and Lelde Krasnā (Liberal Dancers Group, Latvia) that “we have to develop cooperation in the European level” to solve all the problems. We asked reporters to share their thoughts.

5 months in Montoyer building: starter‘s kit

Networking

• Networking. This is the key word we learned here. How? This is your creativity thing, guys…And we don‘t talk about the social networking on web (not yet), but the REAL contacts you make here…
• One office next to yours in the first floor, there are stagiaires of the Copy/paste Unit. Be happy you were not selected for copy/pasting.
• You are in the ground floor where you have neither supervisors, neither other colleagues, try to learn how to manage this freedom. What happens in the ground floor, stays here!
• Go clubbing with other EP stagiaires just if you want.  Choose officials’ parties. Stagiaires are all about fun, officials are about your future here.
• Thursday the Parliament goes to take A beer on place LUX.  No matter that there is no possibility to move, to talk or to breath, you go to PULLMAN. You can just say „Let‘s meet on plux this evening?“
• In Parliament there is one place you can really relax. This is the Library. We will let you find it yourselves. No networking there.

Lelde, Lady and Indre

Working

• This is not what it looks like: Copenhagen and Lisbon are not just the great ideas for travelling. Just the same about Tapas. Ask them.
• Stagiaires are not allowed to ask anything during committee meetings. But you can always try.
• “We must”, “we should”, “we have to”, “to combat”, “to develop” “to increase”, “to cooperate”   – magic phrases you will know by heart after following some debates. Use these as much as possible when communicating, it will always work.
• Another magic word „Strasbourg“(actually this is the city in Eastern part of France). Trip to Strasbourg means more than networking. It means trying to feel „plenary`s atmosphere“. Go to have some coffee in “flowers bar”, try choucroute and don‘t pay for your dinner (in this Unit „trainees never pay for their dinner in STR“).
• Don‘t use the phrase „we are JUST the trainees“, when something bad happens to you… it leads nowhere.
• There are million reasons to remember one’s name. Nice e-mail with your name and surname could be right in time. And sign your mails with your name not “trainee”.

We learned also other formula: 100 CV sent = 1 invitation for an interview.

Lunchbreak

• You are in Montoyer building, but that doesn‘t mean you are „outside“. You just do all the hardest communication work, no matter that you go for a lunch in the central Parliament building and you look like a visitor with your coat.
• In the Parliament canteen you have a reduction. If you want some advice how to manage five dishes for 2.5 Euros, do not hesitate to contact us. If you don’t want to pay at all, free food and drinks can be had at various receptions around Parliament. Check the schedule.
• After lunch you have to go to take a coffee not just because in your building there is no place to drink a real coffee, but more also to feel the atmosphere. Go to Mickey Mouse (it‘s a bar in the Parliament, don‘t ask why they call it like that).
• You don‘t have a kitchen in your floor, but you are always welcomed in the kitchen upstairs. Right, there are still 6 floors which have kitchen. Try first and second. In the first sometimes you have some sweets to „enjoy“. Enjoy!

Future

• Being a trainee doesn‘t automatically guarantee you a MEPs assistant place (think how it is stressful for these assistants to receive all these mails with your CV). But you can always try by sending your CV. We learned also other formula: 100 CV sent = 1 invitation for an interview.

The most important: things we learned about this Unit

• Say „tu“ for Thibault instead of „vous“. He insists.
• You are involved in very large scale of activities here.
• Work starts at 9 (at least) and finishes at 18 (at least).
• They say „write an article as you would write for your grandmother“.
• Face…what? Do not have a Facebook account? Create one, you can delete it after your traineeship.
• If the colleagues editors come to your room, don‘t panic and don‘t switch off your Facebook page. Surfing on Facebook means „working“here!
• At the beginning you could not know smth., but there is google translator..
• If you are really lucky, they could ask you to tweet. This is a sign they trust you. Not everybody can tweet!
• If you are asked to cover debates, this means they trust you even more!
• If your name appears in the editorial schedule, it is getting serious.
• You can always find how to be more creative, even if your task is to find friends in MySpace or to check if MEPs are on Facebook.
• Always take some sheet of paper and pen to the meetings to look professional.
• In the editorial meetings try to look as you understand everything even if some things pass near your ears (update the focus, embed the video….).
• BTW we also developed some specific language code downstairs…if you have any interest in shooting theory, we can help (only for guys).
• You missed the Christmas party at the Head of Unit’s house. Ha!
• People are really nice here. Be nice with them too.

Fact box:

• 5 month of traineeship
• 2 Euros for a beer on Happy hours in Place Lux
• 5 % of sunny days in Brussels
• 11 o’clock Editorial meeting on Fridays

Links:

Welcome to my country (Latvia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RuNWWdhHSo

Welcome to Lithuania

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQUi2k4ek3E

Traineeship at the European Parliament.

How do you write an article in 22 languages about the very same subject without translating it ?

Not that we have anything against translation nor translators. They are the salt of the European Parliament good way of working. Since it is a fundamental right to run for an election whatever your skills, experience or knowledge might be, you cannot ask to the Members to be fluent in foreign languages. Hence the essential needs for translation, so that your chosen ones can read, work, amend, debate and vote in their mother tongue. 

But for our own editorial needs, translation wouldn’t do the job. We are a team of writers devoted to every street guys. We do our best to write in a comprehensive language, free of eurojargon, with its vitality, its charm, its colloquial ways of informing about the acts and decisions of the Parliament. All that flavour is sometimes lost in translation.

Also, when composing the team, we wanted as much as possible people from the journalism or communication fields. We work as closely as possible as a news agency would do. This requires specific profile with many talents – but adding the translating skills to the check list would have been asking for too much. 

So we brainstormed…

After some gallons of coffee, we came up with the idea of the synopsis. The synopsis is what the French having studied in Science-Pô would call “un plan détaillé”. It is a detailed draft of the story, a skeleton well structured, which provides all facts, quotes, figures, examples. It is written in a basic English to be understood by everyone. It is almost always written by two editors (it provides a second pair of eyes to challenge the structure) and it should be no longer than two pages. Before it is sent to the rest of the team, the synopsis is reviewed (and formally “approved”) by Steve, the Boss-of-the-pop, and sometimes revised by some of our colleagues from the Press Room who cover the Committees. We call them the “specialists” because they follow deeply all legislative matters and they are the best to check the facts and the political positions.

From the synopsis, the editors write. In their language. They stick to the synopsis but they add the flavor, the spices, the taste of the final text. All our stories are the same in 22 languages but none of them are identical. Our writers have their style, even their voice. For example, Gaëlle’s writings (she’s our French editor), sound like my eldest sister explaining me the European affairs. Without the naughty comments about my fashion tastes.

And we still brainstorm

Synopses belong to the list of most debated subjects in our staff meetings. Despite our common rules, the fact that we produce two to three of them every day lead to different perspectives. Different schools in the way we perform the task. Some prefers long (too long ?) and very well detailed synopses. Some write in their best English, which can be gratifying but also painful for others. Some editors have a touch for extremely short and bullet-points style synopsis – which others hate because they need more information to feed their prose with more details. That’s what we call diversity.

So we discuss, we exchange, we improve, we criticise - oh, and we complain a lot too. We even have theories explaining the different levels of quality in our synopses (one of them puts the blame on Steve but don’t tell him).

But we stick to the synopsis because there is no better way, to this date, to ensure a good European coverage of the Parliament’s news with the same pieces of information for 22 languages and 27 countries.

Next time you meet an editor, ask him or her about his/her favorite synopsis. And about the worst ones he had to write from lately. And don’t forget to change the subject after a while, after all, all those chats about works can be sooo dreadful.