In mid April, I headed back to the continent once again, to reunite with the rest of the DG Press Representation Stagiaires for a weeklong seminar on the workings of DG Press and a trip to Strasbourg to visit the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. I arrived a couple of days early so as to see a bit more of Brussels and also to party with some of the Irish and Spanish stagiaires I had met on the first trip in March. Staying in the so-called "house of Irish", I was in the Brussels working class neighbourhood of Saint Josse, which is within about 10 minutes walk of the EU sector and maybe 25 minutes from the Old City downtown. It’s an interesting area, since one hears more Arabic and Spanish spoken than French or Flemish. Indeed, in my experiences in the whole polyglot city, there is quite a lot of Spanish and English spoken, making the national languages not really a necessity for getting around in most areas.
On the first night, I headed with the Irish stagiaires to the flat of the two Spanish girls, Ana and Mayra, across the street, who were both celebrating their birthdays. There was a ceremonial wrapping of the goldfish – Guinness and Sangria – that was to be their gift. Then we headed up to the 22nd floor flat, high above the city with impressive vistas out over the avenues and rooftops. My friend and Buenos Aires classmate Jan had recently begun a stages with the European Parliament, working for the Czech communist MEP, and he stopped by at the party for a while. It was quite a hectic all-night affair, with two large buckets of Sangria and plentiful wine, beer and spirits, as well as some tasty food, including homemade Spanish tortilla de patatas. Lots of languages being spoken and networking being done; I also ran into the Hungarian representation stagiaire, a day early. We finally made it back to the House of Irish at around 7 am, so needless to say that my original plans for the following day (sightseeing around the Atomium park area) were shot, and I spent most of the day in recovery and sleeping. In house of Irish, the planning for the national party at the end of May were well underway, as well as plans for a stagiaire trip to either Israel or Mozambique.
On Monday morning, I decided to head around the Euro district a bit to do some sightseeing, since my meetings in the Brussels Representation didn’t begin until 14:00. Most of the main buildings being used at the moment are quite new and very modernistic, having been built in the past 5 years. There is a fair number of Irish pubs around the district, and there are a few nice parks and plazas, notably the Parc Cinquantanaire, which was installed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Belgium's independence. There is a giant triumphal arch in the centre, which offsets nicely the view along Rue de la Loi, seen from below and setting a nice backdrop to the Robert Schumann roundabout.
The next two days were taken up with lectures and visits to various parts of the Press Directorate, taking place in Berlaymont and the Brussels Representation of the Commission. Oddly enough, this national representation is only 3 or so blocks from the Commission headquarters at Berlaymont. The Berlaymont itself is quite impressive. It is really massive, having four large wings and around 30 stories. We visited its television studios and press conference hall, where the daily international press briefing takes place. Apparently it plays host to the largest press corps in the world, surpassing even the White House for the past few years. It is quite an operation. It was very interesting to see the way in which the Commissioners’ spokespersons dodge and feign the questions of the press, especially based on the lecture we had received from one of them the previous day.
Generally the long and busy working day of the Brussels stagiaire is followed up with a long and busy social evening. During our time we, the representation folks, tried to echo this a little, and headed to Kitty O’Sheas on the first night there. It is literally the first watering hole you hit once walking out of the Berlaymont and is apparently very popular amongst the Commission stagiaires. The second evening, we actually had a cocktail sesh laid on by the Commission for us, which was nice!
On the first evening, I also met up with Jan and his coworkers after their workday over in Place de Luxembourg, at a small and dodgy little pub where they apparently are regulars and are quite spoilt by the Bulgarian waitress. As one of the communist party MEPs came along and we were talking about the Constitutional Treaty, I nearly got into a tricky situation, since he went and brought over two “friends” he wanted to introduce me to – staffers for the Sinn Féin MEP in the Euro Parliament. They came over saluting me in Irish, and going on about how they wanted to get copies of the Constitution. Needless to say, I wasn’t terribly impressed by them.
After having lunch in the Berlaymont on the second day in Brussels, I availed of the 2-hour lunch break they all get in Brussels, and hoofed it over to the European Parliament area on Place de Luxembourg to meet up with Jan again and walk around the Parliament building. It is still quite under construction in parts, especially the entrance and the link into the Gare de Luxembourg, which takes all the MEP staffers to Strasbourg once monthly. As they were in Strasbourg on this particular week, inside the building was quite a ghost town. Even with my security pass from the Commission, I was unable to pass directly into the building, and had to drop off my passport and get a daily pass from Jan’s colleague.
On the third day, I had a very early start to head across the quiet city and meet up with the rest of the group bound for Strasbourg at 6:30 am. The five-hour train trip we then embarked on would take us across Belgium, through Luxembourg and into France to eventually arrive in Strasbourg. The next couple of days were to be quite pleasant, although very packed with information and lectures in the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. Strasbourg is really quite a lovely little city of about 500,000. It is well-sited in the middle of the Alsace, thus sharing both a French and a German past, and bearing the brunt of many of the historical wars between the two continental powers. Thus it is an apparent symbolic choice for hosting some of the most important institutions in the EU. All over the city there is beautiful old architecture, but above all in the part called Petite France, which is ringed by a river and canals and has a very pleasant air to it, with all the mediaeval architecture and outdoor eateries. Some local delicacies include the tarte flambée – a type of thin-crust pizza with soft cheese and onions – and the Alsacian specialty sausages. There is also a variety of fine local wines, and while the beers are not as strong as in Belgium, there are a couple of microbrews proffering their local tastes.
During our time in Strasbourg, the representation stagiaires especially got quite close and I must say we had quite a good time in our out-of-work time. On the first evening, the entire tour group headed to a famous restaurant in Petite France called Au Pont Saint Martin, where there was free wine and live music by a singer who demanded audience participation. Several of us ended up on the mic, and Dimitrius the Greek even ended up smashing a plate at the end of his performance a-la-Zorba-the-Greek, which closed down the show! The night that ensued ended around 4 am, with an 8 am rise to head back to the European Parliament!!
We got quite an interesting guided walking tour of the city, which included a lot of history and interesting local information. After this, we were hosted to a welcome in the Mayor’s office, including a fine offering of, once again, local sausages. Viva DG Sausage!
On our return to Brussels, as a farewell, we headed out in Grand Place and had a few drinks in a popular spot called Le Roy d’Espagne, reflecting the period of Spanish colonialism in the Pays Bas. Ramon (the dutch) and I headed with Aikaterini to a nearby street of Greek pitta shops to have a meal, washed down with some ouzo. Strong stuff! On the way, we stopped by to see the famed Manneken Pis.
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