1. European Stagiaires
Journal Spring 2013
Inside
Subcommittee Overview
Interviews
Stagiaire Perspective
Social Events

3. 3
EDITORIAL
Dear stagiaire,
The most important moments of your stay in Brussels during
the past five months are captured in the pages of this jour-
nal. You will find the highlights of your life inside and outside
the Commission, confessions from the stage committee,
tips from the Commissioners, political concerns, personal
thoughts, trips, social events and exhibitions and activities
from the sub committees - everything worth remembering!
We would like to thank all our contributors for sharing their
precious moments with all of us. Andreea, Anna, Ashley, Av-
gustina, Avril, Camilla, Carsten, Charles, Charlotte, Daphne,
Davide, Gabriela, Giuseppe, Ioanna, Jan, Lena, Luca, Luis,
Magdalena, Maria, Marika, Marina, Moniek, Nadia, Olivia,
Philipp, Sabrina, Samanta, Stephanie, Tiemen, Tin, Victor this
journal would not be possible without you!
Wishing all of you the best luck for your next steps!
The European Stagiaires Jounral Team

4. 4
Hara
Hara is a graduate of Political Science
with a Master in European Studies. Her
professional background is focused in the
area of PR & Communications. Her inter-
ests include, among others, graphic de-
sign and writing. Her involvement in the
journal was an opportunity to work in a
project related to her professional back-
ground and also to contribute in a group
effort to create a journal that holds all
the best memories of our stage journey.
Nationality: Greek
DG MOVE- B2. Single European Rail Area
Maria Deligianni: Coordinator Maeve GlaveyHara Kanatsouli: Art Director & Designer
Maria
Maria is a graduate of Political Science
and Public Administration and is holding
a Master in International and European
Relations. Her professional interest is fo-
cused on the maritime industry. She decid-
ed to take the reins of the journal because
she enjoys team work and she wanted to
contribute to the creation of a ‘memo-
rial book’ that will bring back memories
to the stagiaires whenever they open it.
Nationality: Greek
DG MOVE. B3 Ports and Inland Navigation
Maeve is a Political S
Ireland with a backgro
and Human Rights. He
stems from a long volu
and editing and a desir
in print the stagiaire
Brusselsoneofherfavo
Nationality: Irish
EEAS VI. B.1 Global Is
rorism
Maeve

5. 5
y: Chief Editor Agnija Kazusa: EditorHelene Desobeau:
Helene
Helene has a technical background in Bi-
ology and is now pursuing a Master’s de-
gree in Civil Engineering, with a specializa-
tion in Environmental Risk Management,
and a Master’s degree in Policy Sciences.
She previously contributed to the produc-
tion of a journal during her studies and
joined the stage journal team in order to
expand her experience dealing with layout.
Nationality: French
DEVCO.C2. Climate Change, Environment,
Natural Resources, Water
Agnija
Agnija is a graduate of Communica-
tion Science. She started her career
as a freelance journalist, worked as
an editor-in-chief for the local news-
paper in Latvia, as well as hosted her
own radio show about music and trav-
elling. Regardless the location, she al-
ways follows two passions - music and
writing. Her involvement in the Stage
Journal is yet another opportunity to
meet likeminded people with whom
to come together and capture those
things and moments that are impor-
tant for the fellow stagiaire community.
Nationality: Latvian
CNECT.C4. Flagships
Special Thanks:
Karin Jurgens
Victoria Henderson
Rebecca Maurice
Julie Tovgaard
Andreas Gahleitner
Science graduate from
ound in European Affairs
er interest in the journal
untary career in writing
re to accurately capture
spirit which has made
ouritetemporaryhomes.
ssues and Counter-Ter-

7. INTERVIEWS
-Introducing the members of the Stage Committee
- Commissioner Interviews
THE STAGIAIRE PERSPECTIVE
- Political Life
- Personal Experiences
SOCIAL EVENTS
- Social Calendar
- Trips and Events
SUB-COMMITTEES
- Conferences,Training & Career
- Communication & Culture
- Social
- Sport

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Lorenzo Colantoni - SocialPetar Boshnakov - Treasurer Victoria Henderson - Gen
The stage committee for the spring session 2013 consisted of Victoria Henderson (General
Coordinator), Theognosia Petrou (Careers Coordinator), Karin Jurgens (PR& Communica-
tions), Petar Boshnakov (Treasurer) and Lorenzo Colantoni (Social) - a big thank you from all
the stagiaires for all your wonderful work!!!
Q: Why did you decide to run for the stage committee when you first arrived here in Brussels?
V: I wanted to get to know as many stagiaires as possible. There were 700 of us and you only
know a cross-section of them. The liaison committee made it sound like so much fun. Also
the age-old answer, that it looks good on your CV.
K: A bit of the same, especially the first reason of meeting more people. Many people were
very close with their DG, or very close with flatmates. I’m not really close to my flatmates or
my DG so I wanted to meet new people. Also, I had a job before I got here in which I did some
PR activities. I knew I wouldn’t continue these in my stage so I thought being PR and Com-
munication coordinator would be a good way not to have let those activities go.
T: For me it was mostly a last minute decision; I wasn’t sure if I wanted to apply for it but I
just wanted to do something more proactive, to be more involved and to live this experience
to the full. If you’re in a group of people it’s easier to do teamwork and meet people. I’m also
living with family so I wasn’t so close to the trainees.
L: It’s pretty easy to explain. I liked what was done and I wanted to be part of it. I had experi-
ence organizing events and networking.
P: It was mostly because I have never done something like this before. I wanted to see what
it was like to be part of the organisation. I had a good opportunity to run, as did everyone in
the stage so I decided I would try and do my best. What I wanted from the Stage Committee
was the experience of doing something extra on top of the traineeship. I was really happy, my
expectations were met and I got what I wanted.
Q: What about that speech? Was it scary?!

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neral Coordinator Theognosia Petrou - Careers Coordinator Karin Jurgens - PR & Communications
T: I didn’t even prepare a speech as it was last-minute; I just got there and I remember I said
that ‘my speech would be short ‘cause I don’t have a speech’. It was quite scary to see all
those people as there were quite a lot of people; but it was cool – it was our moment.
P: It was bit different for me to the others. I thought the speech should be professional so I
prepared it and wrote it down. I tried to express what I thought but during the speeches it
turned out the format is quite loose and basically you can speak however you want and no-
body listens to what you say unless you’re funny!
L: You’re thrown into a situation where you don’t know what’s going to happen or what you’ll
be speaking about and you really take your chances in two minutes! It was awesome for me
because I’m good at speaking about everything and nothing!
Q: We as stagiaires see you at certain events and parties quite frequently but there’s lots of
work that goes on behind the scenes that we don’t see – how much time do you spend on it
every week and what takes up most of your time?
V: Being general coordinator, general coordination takes up most of the time! I think for
all of us just generally coordinating everything All of us spend at least two hours a week in
the office, one for the weekly meeting and one for office night. You have to keep the office
open Tuesday to Friday, between 6pm and 8pm. I would say some weeks it’s 50-50 DG-Stage
Committee work, sometimes it’s 75-25 DG-Stage Committee work and other times it’s 25-75
DG-Stage Committee work. Pretty much it’s like having two full-time jobs because there’s
always something to be done for the Stage Committee, whether it’s an email or a meeting.
Personally what takes up the most time is email answering. You’d be surprised how many
emails we get! I went to the NATO visit one afternoon and missed half a day and when I came
back I had 68 emails. Theo went on a trip to Cyprus and had more than 100 when she came
back. It’s a bit full-on!
K: Emails as well. For me it’s also the newsletter. This is a structured, regular thing that
comes back every week. I have a set format for it – 150 words and add an image if you like –
but there are often still many changes I have to make to the layout and that takes up a lot of
time on Monday, when we also have the weekly meeting. So for me the beginning of the week

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is the most pressure. Monday is a crazy day but after Wednesday it’s doable.
P: It depends. At the moment we have a backlog because our safe hasn’t been delivered so
we cannot do some payments and we have a lot of requests. Lately we were busy with the
trip to Luxembourg and couldn’t really deal with the administration. On a normal day in the
office I take my two hours to finish all the administration. Apart from that all days involve
Stage Committee business from whenever you arrive at work at 9am or 9.30am to when you
leave at 5.30pm because we answer emails and requests and do work even though we’re not
in the office. It probably takes at least half of our day.
L: I had some particular problems organising the events. Despite the experience I had in
Rome, here in Brussels it’s completely different. The venues are really awful and very ex-
pensive. If you go representing trainees you look like a cash cow so they try to take as much
money as possible from you, but on the other hand if you’re Mr nobody, no-one will care
about you and you won’t find a venue. So you have to balance between the two and that
wasn’t easy at all.
Q: You all have designated roles. How do you organise something that doesn’t fall into a spe-
cific category?
V: The only thing that doesn’t really fall into a category is the trips. Parties are Lorenzo’s
thing; conferences, careers, business cards is Theo; PR and newsletter is Karin; money Petar
and me just generally whatever. We’ve only had one major trip and it was just saying to each
other:‘who wants to find accommodation’, ‘who wants to send emails’ etc.
Q: How supportive have your advisors been of your Stage Committee work and how has it
been managing your time?
K: It really depends on your stage and on your advisor. I’m quite lucky I think because my ad-
visor is happy as long as I do my work, so I can flexibly plan my SC work around my DG work.
Q: How does the relationship with the traineeship office and the subcommittees work?
V: the traineeship office is very friendly. They’re there, they’re present and they oversee what
we do in general but they don’t dictate what we do. We do some things, like the job fair and
the farewell conference in cooperation with them, but everything else we do ourselves and
they check in once in a while. They keep in contact and keep us informed of anything we
need to know. With the subcommittees, at the beginning we divided them all up into cat-
egories and each person had a group to look after. But now they all do their own thing. The
subcommittee coordinators contact us when they need us and we check in every so often,
especially for the big ones like Euroball or Careers.
L: That’s been a big change since the beginning. At the beginning we had to push a lot of the
activities of the subcommittees in the first month and a half and now it’s the opposite: the
subcommittees are filling so much of the trainees’ time that our events get crowded out!
V: That’s the way it’s supposed to be!
Q: Have you gained new skills as a direct result of your involvement in the Stage Committee?
K: In my previous job I was a marketing employee and you have to do sales as well and I
didn’t like it at all. But here doing PR I have been representing the Stage Committee and get-

11. 11
ting good deals. I developed negotiation skills and I really enjoyed doing this kind of sales.
V: You develop a whole new level of professionalism. We meet a lot of important people and
you have be really formal and present yourself not just as a stagiaire who is here having a
good time, but as a coordinator of the Stage Committee. Also diplomacy and articulation.
Sometimes I find it hard to articulate what I want to say and I can mumble or talk too fast.
But I’ve learned to be more articulate and diplomatic in what I say and to think before I say
something. Also juggling a hundred things at once - we’ve got that down.
L: Definitely multitasking. The first email you get in the morning is about your DG work, the
second is about why the trainees haven’t been paid this month and the third about how
you’re going to find a new location for a party.
V: Lorenzo is very good at multitasking especially at event times. He organises DJS, goes to a
million different venues to meet people, designs posters and tickets.
P: Time management, administration, working with accounting and bookkeeping, event
management. We basically became an information hub and everyone that has a question
comes to us. 90% of the time we can deliver the answer and if not we just forward it to the
traineeship office. We are quite familiar with how the Commission works and how the life of
a trainee within the Commission works and how they can request anything they need.
Q: What are the best and worst things about having been on the Stage Committee?
V: The best has been meeting Lorenzo, Karin, Theo and Petar. At the beginning you don’t
know these people and you have to work with them constantly. Now you realize that we’re
actually good friends and we enjoy each other’s company. We have a ball just doing stupid
things like sitting in the office (while working!) and throwing sponges at Karin’s head…
T: I had to do the business cards and now the farewell conference. It’s really good to practice
your skills for negotiation and patience and trying to please people. You do make mistakes
but that’s good because you learn from it. We didn’t know how to do this before.
V: When we look back it’s really good looking at how far we’ve come and seeing that actually
we’re a dab hand at this now. At the beginning we had no idea how to do the Stage Commit-
tee. There is a guide but it doesn’t really tell you how to do it.
L: The worst things was moving the entire office from Madou to Josef II…and still waiting for
the safe to be delivered!
V: Yep, we’re still waiting on the safe and on a cupboard! One of the bad points is when you
have a day when you have so much DG work and so much Stage Committee work and it just
gets a bit stressful. We do get complaints, not necessarily about us but about general things
and sometimes dealing with those and having people not be as understanding as they could
be. But that is a rare occasion.
P: The best experience is when I see smiley faces, the worst is when things don’t go accord-
ing to the plan which sometimes happens. They you just try and figure out a way to circum-
vent these obstacles.
Q: Do you find that many trainees direct problems to you that you can’t solve?

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V: Yes but we can redirect them, that’s how it should be and we’re happy to do it.
K: It’s not a problem, usually people are very understanding and start their email with ‘you
probably can’t help me but…’
L: We sometimes receive some questions that are a bit excessive. But we are a term of refer-
ence and this helps the traineeship office which is already overloaded with more important
things.
Q: Any messages for the stagiaires - the people you’ve been working for over the past
months??
V: If I could say one thing to future stagiaires who are debating signing up for the Stage Com-
mittee (in case they read this!) definitely do it. The speech is only three minutes of your life
and once you get into the Stage Committee it’s probably the best time you’re going to have!
It’s challenging but rewarding.
K: Yep go for it! Be realistic though. Someone from the Liaison Committee said it took him
four hours a week…it’s not four hours a week, at least not if you do it the way we do it! It can
be killing but you get so much back and it’s really worth it – it’s five months of life and you’ll
rest after the stage!
V: To the current stagiaires a massive THANK YOU! To the subcommittee coordinators, all
those that participated and came to the events, thank you. We get a lot of nice emails too
and little things like that are great.
P: Don’t forget this experience! To future stagiaires, enjoy your stage! You’re not only sup-
posed to work but to enjoy your time here.
ALL: A big thank you from the Stage Committee to every single stagiaire out there.

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Q&A with…Commissioner
Alumnia
Mr Joaquin Alumnia is the Spanish Commissioner responsible for Competition in Barosso’s
Commission
Q: Explain for stagiaires what you do in DG COMP?
A: The Commissioner for Competition, his Cabinet and DG COMP working under my direction
are in charge of enforcing the treaty rules regarding competition. What are these rules? First of all
the fight against cartels, against all kind of illegal agreements and against undertakings to in-
crease prices, reduce choice or foreclose competitors. Second, to enforce the treaty rules regard-
ing anti-trust issues. We need to avoid company abuses of their prominent positions. A company
could have a powerful position in the market but cannot use this position to abuse or squeeze out
competitors. Third, we are in charge of merger control. We need to analyze mergers and see if the
concentration of two or more companies creates significant impediments to competition. Finally,
we are in charge of the control of state aid – we need to control how public money is being used
to support certain companies or economic activities. This support cannot create distortions in the
internal market, cannot distort the level playing field and cannot create advantages for one com-
pany against all the other companies operating in the same market. We discuss and adopt guide-
lines and inform market participants and governments and stakeholders about the rules of the
game for good use of public money and what kind of use of public money is not compatible with
EU rules.

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Q: Tell me about the road you took to get to being the Competition Commissioner. Did this role
come as a surprise?
A: I had been in Brussels many years ago, working as an economist on European issues, but at
that time my country was not a member of the EU because it was not a democracy. I was in-
terested in European issues and I am pro-European, in favour of deeper and broader European
integration. Since the beginning of the Spanish democratic period I have been involved in Span-
ish politics so I was not thinking about becoming Commissioner. I was not thinking about coming
back to live in Brussels. In 2004 after the elections when Zapatero was appointed Prime Minister
he asked me to substitute for the then Spanish Commissioner who was one of the members of his
ne government. I came here unaware if it was for two or three years…and now I am here more
than nine years.
Q: You are a trained economist but there is much more to your position. In your role as a Com-
missioner what kind of skills do you find yourself using in your daily work?
A: I had a friend who had been everything in Europe: in the EU institutions, Director General in
the Commission, a member of the Executive Committee of the European Central Bank, Finance
minister in Italy and a participant in the Eurogroup discussions for several years. I was talking
with him one day and he told me a good European Commissioner needs to have a political vision
about what the future of Europe would look like. So first: political vision regarding European
integration. Second, a Commissioner is a politician, so should have political skills. Political skills
are about many things. If someone who is not a politician is appointed Commissioner he will
probably have difficulties. Third, you need to master the issues that are under your responsibility.
So you need to be a politician but with the capacity to master the technical issues and to know
about your portfolio. Not to let the services and the administration of the Commission impose
their positions. The officials of the Commission are very very good and the Commission has ex-
traordinarily good professionals working at the service of the European interest, but the decisions
should be adopted by the political body, that is the college of Commissioners.
Q: What is the working relationship between you and the other Commissioners, particularly those
working on economic issues?

15. 15
A: It’s important. Our daily life is not only to deal with our services, our Cabinet and to com-
municate what we are doing through our Spokesperson, but also to have daily contacts with the
other areas of the Commission’s work. Our Cabinets are in permanent contact, and the services
and DGs have horizontal contacts. This is absolutely needed because the Commission is a col-
lege and our decisions are adopted in a collegial way. At the limit, the college of the Commis-
sioners can vote, but under President Barosso’s leadership, we never vote. We try to get consen-
sus, and to harmonise our views. On some very few occasions members of the Commission don’t
share agreement on what is decided but this is the exception.
Q: Do you work with some Commissioners and DGs more than others?
A: In my area, Competition, I have regular contacts with the President, with ECFIN and with
Olli Rehn (Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs) and his services, with Michel
Barnier (Commissioner for Internal Market) and his services, and with Neelie Kroes (Commis-
sioner for Digital Agenda). I am also in contact with Energy, Environment, and Research and
Development. I am less dependent on the budget Commissioner because my budget is very tiny!
We contribute to the budget through the revenue side with the fines.
Q: You recently published the Competition report for 2012 and presented it in the European Par-
liament. In it and recently you’ve mentioned the contribution competition policy has to make to
economic recovery in Europe. What do you think about European recovery and what do you and
your DG have to contribute to it?
A: Competition policy sometimes has short-term effects but in general protection or enforcement
of competition principles can guarantee that economy is more resilient. It can help productivity
levels improve, provide more opportunities for innovation to succeed, ensure the good perform-
ers will survive and ensure new entrants will have less difficulties entering the market, contrib-
uting with new activities, ideas and investments. On some occasions competition policy should
be regarded as a very good structural reform to contribute to increase our growth potential, to
improve our competitiveness, to improve innovation and productivity levels. Competition policy
is also free, so we are not putting a burden on public finances.
Q: Have you had to change your mindset about the economy of Europe or about competition
policy as a result of the crisis?
A: I have been here before the crisis, during the crisis and now that we are hopefully getting
out of the crisis and it has changed a lot of things. The crisis has been very painful, especially
because of the social consequences – unemployment, lack of expectations for the young genera-
tions, difficulties when we have to tackle the aggressive competition from some very dynamic
economies beyond our borders. But at the same time the crisis is a good opportunity to learn
what should be done and what should not be done. We have to learn and I hope we have learned
a lot about our past mistakes, for instance lack of regulation of financial activities, weak supervi-
sion of financial activities and very little attention to debt levels which have created problems
both in the public and private sectors of many of our countries. Political decisions in Europe are
becoming more and more necessary and this means that Europe is not only about the economy or
decisions on sectoral policies, but also about a new level of democratic legitimacy of our politi-
cal institutions: the European Parliament, the way the Commission is accountable before Parlia-

16. 16
ment and the way Member States and governments accept to receive recommendations from the
common institutions. The lessons of the crisis are not only economic but also political and of course
social because some of the most difficult challenges when fighting the consequences of the crisis are
about how to protect our social model and not give up on our social ambition.
Q: Is there a lot of collaboration with competition authorities within and outside of Europe?
A: Yes. Within Europe we have almost daily contacts and cooperation dialogue with the national
competition authorities of the Member States. We have a European Competition Network that has
established rules of coordination and permanent dialogue. We have to enforce the same rules, the
same treaty articles and we need to be coordinated and I think this coordination is working quite
well. At the same time we live in a global world, with global markets. The challenges of different
competition authorities across the world are more or less the same, or at least similar, so we have
a lot of contacts and relations with our colleagues. We have a very good relationship with the US
competition authorities. There are two: Department of Justice Antitrust division and the Federal
Trade Commission. We also have good regular relations with competition authorities in Japan,
Korea, Canada and Australia. We are trying to reinforce our regular dialogue with the competition
authorities of the emerging countries: China, Brazil, India, and for that purpose we participate in the
International Competition Network. That is a network that coordinates the discussions of more than
100 competition authorities across the world. Also very important is the role played by the OECD,
which has regular working groups and task forces and allows us to share our views and coordinate.
Over the last few years we are observing an increasing convergence of the criteria under which we
base our respective decisions.
Q: What are the differences between working as a national politician and working as a European
representative?
Working here has a lot of positive aspects. You have a broader vision and you can receive diverse
information from many sources. It is a fantastic place to put together different views and you have
a very high degree of information here. At the same time you are not bound by your national pri-
orities. You have a broader picture of the challenges and priorities and the way our policies should
establish objectives. In this sense being here is a fantastic experience. At the same time as a politi-
cian, political tensions also exist. You have a lot of responsibilities you have to deal with, difficult
challenges and tensions, different opinions. You have to make dossiers, to arbitrate. But the tensions
you can experience here are very different to the tensions I remember in national politics, not just in
Spain but in many countries. Political discussions at national or regional level are in my view much
more tense. Yesterday I was at a hearing in the European Parliament but even if I was not telling the
MEPs what they wanted to hear, the kind of reaction is completely different to that of the political
opposition in Spain. On the other hand you cannot stay in Brussels without thinking aobut the real-
ity of every single citizen in Europe. You need to be close to their real problems, to the realities of
the countries, regions and territories in Europe. Brussels from time to time can create the temptation
to live in an ivory tower and we need to avoid this.
Q: DG COMP has a reputation as being a difficult DG to gain a traineeship in. How much do you
know about the work of the stagiaires?

17. 17
A: I always have at least one stagiaire in the Cabinet. We get them in different ways, through the
Blue Book or through Member States. My Spokesperson started six years ago as a stagaire. They
work as other members of the Cabinet do. Together with some of the senior members of Cabinet
they write notes and discuss them with me. They write and analyse cases. In every term of the stage
I also have a meeting with the stagiaires to discuss how their experience was, what they can recom-
mend to improve it, what they expect from the Commission and how they view the functioning of
the Commission and particularly DG COMP. I also have a meeting with the stagiaires from my own
country. I have meetings also with stagiaires that come not from the Blue Book but from the Minis-
tries and try to find out how their life is going.
Q: What advice would you give to stagaires who want to stay in Brussels and build a career in Euro-
pean affairs?
A: I think not all the stagiaires should stay in Brussels because we need young people with expertise
in European affairs and knowledge of how the European institutions work to go to their respec-
tive Member States, or to other Member States, to ensure that people outside Brussels understand
how Europe works and what it’s about. I know many stagiaires I met several years ago managed to
find jobs here as civil servants in the Commission or in other EU institutions or in the thousands of
offices, associations and bodies that work around these European issues here in Brussels. I think in
general you have better job expectations than other young people.
Q: What do you like to do outside your time as Commissioner?
A: I spend a lot of time in this office but I don’t live here. I like to read books, go to the cinema,
opera, music. I like travel from time to time. If you have to travel to a city on a Friday for a confer-
ence, there is always the temptation to stay and spend the whole weekend there. If on a Friday I am
working in my own office, Brussels at the weekend is very pleasant. In general I find the stagiaires
don’t like to finish and they say it’s very short.
Q: What is your favourite quote?
A: You surprised me with this question!
….
YES WE CAN!
Q: Have you plans for what will happen after you finish your time in the Commission?
A: Resting! Enjoying life! The day after the end of my tenure as Commissioner, I always imagine
myself on a beach, drinking lemonade and reading a good book. I don’t know if I’ll be happy after
one week, but the first week will be good.
Words:
Maeve Glavey
Photos:
Olivia O’Connell

18. 18
Mr Siim Kallas is the Estonian Commissioner responsible for Transport in Barroso’s cabinet
since 2010. He also worked in the two previous Commissions and is the former Prime Minis-
ter of Estonia.
Q: Tell me about your time as Commissioner in your own words?
A: I have been a member of the European Commission for nine years already. In Prodi’s Com-
mission, I was a junior Commissioner for Economic& Monetary Affairs. In the first Barosso
Commission I was responsible for administration, budget discharge and the fight against
corruption - everything that could go wrong! It was all on my desk.
Now I have responsibility for transport. Transport is a very broad portfolio. Transport is not
only a problem but also a solution. It can be a nuisance for the environment, but also a sec-
tor of the economy which is extremely important to bring people together and make business
opportunities better. Three years ago when we started to work out the first conceptual docu-
ments for this Commission transport was only seen as a problem. For people, the biggest
problem is congestion – this is shown in all the polls. Our goal in transport policy is to reduce
nuisances and maximise benefits.
In all modes of transport there are problems, starting with aviation, which is the most global.
Aviation is a very sensitive area where we clearly have problems with competitiveness of
Europe vis-à-vis other big parts of the world. Of course as manufacturers of aviation equip-

19. 19
ment, we are on the top – only the United States is a competitor, no others. But all European
airlines have difficulties, for example with lack of profits and sustainability. The biggest
national barrier is air traffic management.
At the beginning of my time here we had an air crisis with the Icelandic volcano. It was very
clear immediately when there was a crisis that to whatever extent you have sovereignty you
cannot actually exercise it because you cannot close or open your airspace when your neigh-
bours are closing or opening their airspace – it must be done together. The immediate mech-
anisms to create some kind of common approach in this type of crisis were created. Our big
objective is to introduce a new type of air traffic management which reduces delays and fuel
consumption. It’s very simple. If you go to take a flight today, the flight is not going directly
from point to point. It’s waiting on the tarmac due to delays and ground handling and other
things – if we can reduce these types of delays, this will improve economies of fuel con-
sumption, reduce CO2 emissions and cause less delays for passengers.
Q: Does the EU face unique challenges or are they similar to transport challenges in other
regions?
A: The US is our biggest partner in the world – together we control 60% of world aviation.
But they have completely different problems. They don’t have this fragmentation between
airspace, but different issues with security and safety. In Europe the airlines pay fees for
the use of airports and are responsible for security and safety issues. In the US government
pays and government pays for air traffic management as well, so now there is a big budget-
ary struggle in the US. As for other countries, Russia is a huge airspace but they don’t have
many good airports. In terms of air traffic management the satellite base and computer
management systems are similar in Europe and in the US and Russia.
Q: You have a strong political background in your native Estonia. What are the differences
between working as a national politician and working as a European representative?
A: There are some big differences! First, coming from a small country, you have to adapt to
a completely new magnitude. You were dependent on the big players and now suddenly you
are the big player, one of the two biggest in the world. It takes time to adapt. Second, you
must get to know the other nations. This is an amazing experience. You come with certain
attitudes to your neighbours and your history but then you see that other countries have
completely different historical backgrounds. Everybody has their nightmares and these
are completely different between the Baltic and Southern Europe for example. If you don’t
understand these different mentalities and attitudes you cannot find solutions. There are
big economic policy and social differences in Europe. Third, being here in Brussels you learn
to look at your own country from outside as an observer and you can better understand your
own nation.
Q: As you know it’s currently the European Year of Citizens, a year which is supposed to fo-
cus on communicating the role of the European institutions. How do you think this has been
managed in general and from the Transport perspective? How well do you think Europeans
understand what you do?
A: Actually I think you have a better picture of things by being in close contact with your
home country. I’ve always been a heretic on this particular issue. I think that the European
Union is very complex and reaching the citizens directly can best be done via governments.
My relations with press of Member States are very good and I give interviews. But when it

20. 20
comes to defending what we’re doing here in the EU, if the Council is deciding something and
Member State governments say ‘it’s rubbish’, then nobody can change the people’s minds;
people believe their governments as they always have. We saw it in 2005 when the French
and Dutch rejected the so-called Constitutional Treaty. This was not because the treaty was
bad, but because the French and Dutch leadership criticized it. The French said it was bad
and the Dutch said it was too little and too French! But we have official strong beliefs that
we can reach citizens directly…
Q: Like the rest of the members of the Barosso Commission, you’ll be coming to the end of
this phase of your career soon. How will you measure your success as Transport Commis-
sioner?
A7: It’s difficult to assess at this stage, but I am quite happy because some very complicated
pieces of legislation, especially regarding the railway package, have gone as planned. It will
go to Member States and Council and the European Parliament and it may fail, but it reflects
our vision of a pan-European railway system. I believe it will be successful. Also the White
Paper on Transport which was adopted in 2011 reflected that one must take a balanced view
of transport, and also smaller things.
Q: When you were young what profession did you want to have?
As a boy, it was first always a driver. Then of course in my country, the dream was to be the
captain of a big ship. Later I graduated from secondary school with very good marks and
then I went to university and decided to be educated as an economist. Economy, history and
politics, have always been my interests, from a very young age.
Q: Had you ever envisaged yourself as a European Commissioner?
A: No, no, no! Even in 2003, when the Prime Minister started to convince me to be the first
Estonian Commissioner, I was quite hesitant and even reluctant to consider this a good idea.
But after these nine years I am very thankful for the Prime Minister who succeeded in con-
vincing me. It has been amazingly interesting!
Q: What do you know about the role of stagiaires?
A: I know they are there but I don’t know much about you’re doing in the DGs. I think the
institution of stagiaires is one thing which addresses the objective to have cooperation be-
tween the European Commission and the rest of the world. It’s very positive. I met with the
previous group of stagiaires and we always have one working in the Cabinet as well.
Q: What advice would you give stagiaires who want to continue in European affairs about
how to approach our careers and move forward?
A: I think that we all, not just you, should really learn from European history. We are all very
much linked to our national background and history. We should learn constantly about the
European Union, how this project has been created and developed and how it works. Obtain
unique knowledge. The network of friends and colleague you’ve developed here is also of
unique value.

21. 21
Q: Do you have any time outside of your responsibilities of being a Commissioner and what
do you like to do to relax?
Yes I have time – otherwise you’d die very soon! I have a very crazy agenda, with a lot of
travel, but weekends are not so bad. Lots of people such as MEPS and Commissioners travel
at weekends so not much happens then. When I came to Brussels I decided to ‘swallow’ as
much culture as possible and to visit theatres everywhere. Paris is 120 minutes away! I also
keep physical form as this is extremely important. I strongly recommend hiking in the Ar-
dennes, there are a lot of beautiful places.
Q: What is your favourite quote?
A: I’m not much of a Keynesian but in my personal life I always use John Maynard Keynes’s
quote that richness is in spending money, not saving money. That’s personal! In macroeco-
nomic terms I have different views. Another quote I recently discovered is extremely good –
it’s from the ledger of Francisco Pappini, who died in 1310 and whose books were discovered
in Firenze in 1870. Every accounting book had his motto which was ‘For God and for Profit’.
That is in Norman Davies’ book ‘Europe’.
Q: Have you plans for what will happen after you finish your time in the Commission?
A: To be absolutely honest, there is no plan because I have a retirement age so I can be free!
Q: To hike???
A: To do various activities and enjoy life.
Words: Maeve Glavey
Photos: Victor Olsson

22. 22
Interview with Maros Sefcovic
Commissioner Šefčovič deals with inter-institutional affairs – representing the Com-
mission vis-à-vis other EU institutions – and handles all topics related to the adminis-
tration of the Commission, comprising more than 40 departments and around 30,000
staff members.
European Stagiaires Journal invites you to delve into the heart of the European world.
1) How do the inter-institutional and administration dimensions of your portfolio fit
together?
One may see them as two different portfolios, but they are deeply interlinked. This has
been very apparent during the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) negotiations,
in particular when the discussions on EU budget cuts regarding staff regulation came
under the spotlight as a hot topic. It was definitely an added value to cover both areas
so as to be able to maintain good working relationships with other institutions at the
same time as taking responsibility for the Commission’s administration. There are
also a lot of inter-institutional elements in our own administration. Just look at EPSO
and their mission to recruit for all the EU institutions. Even measures on the staff
regulations decided during the MFF negotiations impact all the Institutions.
Moreover, when a structural topic like the framework agreement with the Parliament
is to be discussed, I am usually the one dealing with these issues for the Commission.
Likewise, I can step into debates involving other Commissioners handling their own
portfolio in terms of structural nature and horizontal problems to be solved.

23. 23
2) What does your role as Vice-President consist of?
I deal not only with issues which are specifically related to our portfolio, but also with
horizontal responsibilities. For example, I might be asked to replace the President of
the Commission or other colleagues, in plenary debates or in contacts with national
Parliaments, which have gained in importance since the Lisbon treaty came into effect
and even more so now, since the economic governance amplifies the role of the Com-
mission in many areas.
3) Given the cuts in the EU budget and staff, how will you ensure Europe continues to
deliver the best possible service to citizens with fewer resources?
I proposed an administrative reform a year and a half ago which has finally been
endorsed by Member States. It will be a big challenge. In particular, there will be a
2-year freeze in salaries. Looking at how hard negotiations have been, I think the out-
come is reasonable. Particularly so since we had to confront a biased press campaign
against the EU civil service, about their salaries, perks, and so-called “inefficiency”. It
is not easy to lead a communication battle against such a concentrated campaign since
a negative article gets more coverage than our explanations or corrections. Freezing
salaries also has the benefit of showing that the EU civil service does not live in a
parallel world. Under these circumstances, we are still ready to deliver high quality
services to citizens by working longer hours, retiring later and by using new working
methods. This means identifying “negative priorities”, i.e. the things we won’t do any
longer. Likewise, there will be a new approach to the new tasks we are given: Member
States will have to take upon themselves additional costs and extra staff as needed.
4) What benefit can the stagiaires get and give to the Commission?
For you, the stage is a great accomplishment because you went through a demand-
ing selection process. It means that you were a brilliant student, that you have an
outstanding CV. Every future employer who reads your CV and sees that you spent a
Bluebook stage in the Commission will be impressed. Experts with knowledge of EU
functions and processes are needed in every government, big city council, national
Parliament, or private company. You can learn a lot during your stage: how it feels to
be in a multilingual environment, or how often we are in a positive, creative tension
with Member States… I’m also sure that many of you are positively motivated to stay,
and that you are in a better position to pass the EPSO competition. At the same time,
the Commission benefits from your presence, because you’re young people with a
positive outlook on the EU. Your participation for 5 months makes you ambassadors
for Europe, and helps maintain prosperity and peace in the EU and secure its position
in the world.

24. 24
A History of the former
European Union
Have you ever visited one of those small un-
derfunded museums that deal with fringe is-
sues and are kept alive against the odds of po-
litical and economic interest by the tiresome
work of some dedicated, almost obsessed
collectors? The House of European History in
Exile is such a museum. Underfunded and in
a state of disarray, it presents the history of a
European Union that has long ceased to exist.
A future audience is given the chance to look
back at the Second Interbellum (1945-2018),a
time when Europeans lived in a peaceful and
prosperous continent before the Great Reces-
sion,the reawakening of nationalism and sep-
aratism put an end to the European project.
In the museum, visitors are sent on an indi-
vidual journey through a labyrinth of rooms
filled with relics of a united Europe. The
Do you know which country joined the European Union in 2017 and who was the last
President of the European Council? Questions such as these, alongside many oth-
ers are answered in the current exhibition “Domo de Eŭropa Historio en Ekzilo” in
Brussels, which takes a future perspective looking back at the European Union of the
present. Andreas Gahleitner visited the opening of the exhibition and talked to curator,
Thomas Bellinck.
Domo introduces an imagined audience to
the complexity of a European Union forgot-
ten by most – illustrations of EU directives
and of the Ordinary Legislative Procedure in
Esperanto are certainly an interesting read.
IV: Your exhibition “Domo de Eŭropa His-
torio en Ekzilo” is part of the third Tok
Toc Knock Festival organized by the KVS
(Royal Flemish Theatre). You background
is also that of a theatre director. What in-
spired you to present the fictional history
of the EU as a museum instead of a play?
Bellinck: The initial idea when KVS was plan-
ning the Tok Toc Knock festivals was that the
artists should reach out to the local community

25. 25
and create a work of art that interacts with the
site where the festivals are taking place. For in-
stance, they asked directors to make a play on
a central figure from the area. The first festival
was set in the Cité Modéle and the corresponding
play was inspired by Braem, the architect who
planned Cité Modéle. In Saint-Joose-ten Noode,
where the second festival was set, they made a
play about Guy Cudell who was the Mayor of
that commune for 46 years. So for the festival
in the European District, they asked me to make
a play about Jean Monnet, which I eventually
declined to do. One of the reasons was that at
the time I was also working on a play on Robe-
spierre and the French Revolution and I didn’t
want to become the guy who makes histori-
cal documentary theatre on French key figures.
The idea to create a fictional museum was born
during a visit to the theatre museum in Riga, one
of those fin de siècle houses built by the founding
father of Latvian theatre. I was the only visitor in
the museum and there was an old lady with big
glasses who insisted on guiding me through the
museum. I had a similar experience in the Muse-
um of Revolution in Timisoara where an elderly
veteran of the Revolution had collected every-
thing he could find on the Revolution and built
his own museum. This place was a huge source
of inspiration. They didn’t have much space, they
constantly had to move and the whole museum
was in a state of rennovation with things lying
about so you didn’t know whether they were a
part of the exhibition or not. This was completely
different from the experiential museums that ev-
erybody is building these days, where you can
touch things, smell things, climb into a ditch and
immerse yourself, but after you leave you’ve felt
a lot but learnt little. In Riga and Timisoara, there
is nothing to experience from a sensationalist per-
spective, but you are in a place that really breathes
out what it wants to talk about and is inhabited by
the people who worked to build it. This is when
I thought I could try something similar with the
European Union. Show the EU as something
that is strangely familiar, but widely unknown.
IV: When did you start working on the
project and how did you go about it?
Bellinck: In August. Well, I started a bit before
that, collecting things that might be interesting
but then in August I started reading up on my
topic. Of course I generally try to keep informed,
but it is very hard to do that. The way the press
reports about the European Union is at times
lamentable; the way national politicians com-
municate about it is often even worse. I started
reading everything I could gather. I began with
the Dutch historian Geert Mak because I hadn’t
read In Europa yet and I think it is an absolute
masterpiece. If you haven’t read it yet, do! The
Dutch TV channel VPRO made a documentary
out of it which is also played as part of the Tok
Toc Knock festival in Maalbeek. I read lots of in-
formation on how the EU works as well as many
Euro-critical books. At the same time I conducted
a great number of interviews with political sci-
entists, historians and politicians and went to
lectures on the European Union. In November,
we eventually started working on the building
which used to be an old boarding school. We first
had to dismantle some walls to create an open
space and then began setting up the exhibition.
IV: You certainly did your homework. The his-
torical facts are well-researched and even your
predictions for the future are credible. Yet, you
are not telling us how the European Union came
to an end and what caused the next war. Given
that you are looking back at the EU from the fu-
ture, that information would have to be available.

26. 26
Bellinck: It is not in the exhibition because it does
not matter. If we assume that we are in 2060 then
you could compare it to looking back to the 1920s
and 30s, a relatively little known period compared
to the wars. The Interbellum is therefore an inter-
esting starting point if you pretend that everything
that came afterwards is common knowledge. It is
also important for the fiction; the exhibition be-
comes much more credible if you don’t make too
many explicit predictions. Nevertheless, I do have
a scenario for the future based on futurological
research. I created a timeline because it is very
important for me to know what happened but that
shouldn’t necessarily be part of the exhibition.
IV: Another striking feature of the exhibi-
tion is the use of Esperanto as the domi-
nant language. What inspired this choice?
Bellinck: On the one hand it is part of the strange
familiarity I was trying to create. The European
Union is something we all know but don’t quite
understand and the use of Esperanto underlines
that point. On the other hand, Esperanto is of
course a highly symbolic language that was cre-
ated to facilitate the understanding among peo-
ple of different nations in the late 19th century.
Nowadays this language is almost dead, but in
the fictional world I wanted to create, it could
be possible that Europeans start re-using Espe-
ranto as a weapon in their fight for new unity.
IV: You spoke of a possible play on Jean Mon-
net before but eventually none of the traditional
founding fathers of the EU made it into the muse-
um. No Monnet, no Schuman nor Adenauer. The
only person that is individually honoured is Otto
von Habsburg, a great European indeed, but rela-
tively unknown.What drew your attention to him?
Bellinck: I briefly considered having Schuman in
the exhibition but eventually opted for Otto von
Habsburg because he has something of a mythi-
cal potential. In the museum he is presented as
one of the real founding fathers because he was
very much involved in the Pan-European Union,
which was already active before World War II.
You have to consider that I chose the fictional per-
spective of an organisation called The Friends of a
re-united Europe and it is already clear from their
name what their main message is. A movement
like that would need an inspirational figure to get
them going and a mythical personality like Otto
von Habsburg could provide that inspiration. It is
surprising that this key figure in European history
is rather unknown here in Belgium but that makes
him even more interesting for this exhibition.
IV: The Domo de Eŭropa Historio den Ekzilo will
beopenforvisitorsuntilthe14thofJune.Surelyyou
already have a new project for the time after that.
Bellinck: My next project will be some sort of
a documentary. I was asked by a friend to join
her in Spain, where we’ll be working on a film
on the plantations in the Almeria region. It
will, among others, address issues such as pol-
lution and the exploitation of illegal aliens that
are not supposed to enter to European Union
but are allowed on the fringes to do the work
we don’t want to do. What’s in the pipeline
as well is a theatre project on Romanian his-
tory which is still in the experimentation phase.
This article is also available online at inter-
nalvoices.org
Andreas Gahleitner

27. 27
Answer to a Common Question
Service (EEAS)
In the broad framework of the Commission
and its Agencies, many of us have over the
past few months had the chance to work daily
in clearly defined policy areas. For some of us
however, the work has not been so clear-cut.
Whenever stagiaires in my field were asked
the common question “which DG are you
working in?’’, and replied ‘’none’’ or began
spouting acronyms like EEAS, FPI, or the gen-
eral “external relations” wildcard, we were
met with questioning stares. With the selfish
incentive of trying to reduce the frequency
of such conversations, I decided to take the
chance in this article to write my own explan-
atory note, putting this overshadowed area
under the spotlight and defending a choice.
Prior to 2010 our predecessors performed
their stages in the former DG External Rela-
tions (RELEX). Policies such as Enlargement,
Trade or Development and Cooperation were
progressively incorporated into their own re-
spective DGs, even if conceptually they also
fit in the wider category of External Relations.
And then DG RELEX disappeared entirely. So
what was left for the new service? The answer
isallthosetraditionaltasksmanagedprimarily
by foreign affairs and security policy services.
Saving my readers from a flood of notions and
historical developments, I will say simply that
there is a prominent element that characteriz-
es this specific domain: its relative weakness

28. 28
compared to other deep-rooted policy areas.
EUCommonForeignandSecurityPolicy(CFSP)
is still moving through the limbo of progres-
sive integration. Against the backdrop of con-
sultations on the European Constitution, one
of the goals of the Lisbon Treaty was to make
external relations more “coherent”, aiming
to bring Member States closer and closer to
a common definition and implementation of
their foreign policy. A recent example like Syr-
ia demonstrates that this is a slow process.
Your fellow stagiaires who have spent their
time working on foreign policy are in fact work-
ing in very young structures, which are under-
going a period of consolidation and which are
dealing with the ‘least European’ area of the
Union.Contrary to our friends in DG AGRI or DG
MOVE for example, we have read fewer Direc-
tivesthanpolicyoptions,weobservefrequent-
ly that the tools necessary to solve our prob-
lems are being built from scratch and we feel
that the road to success in this field is paved
with threats rather than with opportunities.
Why then did some of your colleagues de-
cide to invest their time and effort in this
particular area? To be frank, in terms of
training, experience in other areas (such as
Environment, Market, Regional Policies, Em-
ployment, or Energy) would have provided us
stagiaires with knowledge that could be prof-
itably used to our advantage in gaining em-
ployment on the European job market. It is a
wide and brutal assumption, but on average
there are many more organizations, programs
and general opportunities for practitioners
in these fields than there are in the field of
foreign policy. After frequent conversations
with friends and questions about our inter-
est in this ‘fledgling policy’, we have come
to a common conclusion: we are here be-
cause of a particular form of stubbornness.
Picture: The Economist
We are all deeply and stubbornly convinced
that in the very area where national interests
are most strongly put forward, Europe is once
again the answer to better adapt to a chang-
ing world. It is not just a matter of rhetoric,
it is necessary for material reasons as it was
with the original “internal” integration. The
external outreach of the European Union is
too often neglected and usually far from the
scrutiny of public opinion. The common per-
ception (and unfortunately the reality in many
cases) is that European structures are just
a neutral broker among Member States for
some limited targets. But Europeans have be-
come wiser and more ambitious.The dark mo-
ments of our long history have made us real-
ize the necessity of developing a united future
Europe is now afflicted by the consequences
ofsocialandeconomiccrisis,withgrowingdif-
ficulties in tackling the new rise of nationalist
discourse. Our attention is understandably
focused inside the boundaries of the Europe-
an Union, but this should not distract us from
the necessary work to be done to carve out a
common position in external relations. It is a
simple reality that the world is too small for a
European country acting alone, and we must
not forget that we hold the capability and the
responsibility to lead by example, diffusing
best practices in full respect of other systems.
Most importantly, we need to start working
for wider purposes originally far from the
outreach of our own Nation States’ interests.
There will be no real Union if we combine ef-
forts only when acting inside our boundar-
ies, and it is particularly difficult to define
common interests beyond the central hub
of our shared values – a central crossroads
in the way towards actual political inte-
gration. It might sound naïve and simplis-
tic, but it is an objective within our reach.

29. 29
This is why some of the people you met during your trainee-
ship decided to shape their experience in Brussels around
this area, despite the considerable challenge of dealing with
the ‘new-born’ parts of European policy. We have maintained
our stubbornness and attempted to contribute and to raise
awareness of the importance of a common EU foreign policy. I
hope I have done this.
Guiseppe Fama

30. 30
UK- Euroscepticism or
EU-British scepticism?
When I joined the European Commission in
March 2013, Euroscepticism in the United
Kingdom was at its highest peak. On the 23
January 2013, David Cameron delivered a
speech that outlined plans to hold an ‘in or
out’ referendum on EU membership. The tim-
ing of this long awaited speech, five weeks
before I started my EU stage, has had a sig-
nificant impact on my experience as a Brit-
ish trainee working in the European Union.
The UK is one of the most under-represented
Member States in the European Commission.
British EU Civil Servants account for just over
5% of total staff, although we represent some
12% of the EU population. In contrast, Brit-
ish trainees have some of the best odds to get
into the stage at the Commission in compari-
son to other countries. It is widely known that
the Commission is eager to get as many young
graduates as possible from the UK to work for
the EU, in order to increase British represen-
tation within the Union. However, the num-
ber of British applicants to the stage is star-
tlingly low. For the March 2013 session, there
were 243 British applicants and 42 of those
were selected from the Blue Book. In con-
trast, there were 2535 Italian applicants with
88 trainees selected in total. The odds are ex-
tremely favourable to get into the Blue Book,
and once in, native English speakers have an
even greater advantage: while French and
German are Commission working languages,
working days are conducted mostly in English.
So why are there so few British applicants?
The level of promotion from UK universities
and the number of graduates who study and
speak foreign languages are important fac-
tors in my opinion. The University of Glasgow,
where I studied my MA History and Politics

31. 31
By: Marika Zervos
Degree, did not promote the traineeship at all
among students. Moreover, British graduates
assume that unless you are truly fluent in
French or German, you will not get in. Unfor-
tunately, foreign languages in schools across
the UK are not given enough priority, and in
my case at least, schools preferred allocating
more time to English, Maths or Science than
to having students study French or German.
However,theprivilegedpositionofbeingaBrit-
ish applicant soon became quite the opposite
once I started working for the European Com-
mission. My experience might be different to
other UK stagiaires,but whenever I introduced
myself as British to fellow colleagues at the
EC,or participants at a conference/workshop,
I was instantly thrown questions such as ‘But
if you are British why did you choose Brussels
over London?’,‘Surely the British Government
must be more beneficial to you than the EU?’
or ‘Is the UK actually going to leave the EU?’
In May, Internal Voices hosted a debate with
British MEP Andrew Duff for the stagiaires
of the European Institutions. Although the
debate itself was structured on questions
regarding the future of the EU and how it
may evolve, once the floor opened to ques-
tions from the stagiaires, the topics were al-
most entirely focused on his opinion about
the future of UK membership in the EU.
The timing of the referendum speech has
been critical. For many stagiaires, civil ser-
vants or other professionals living in Brus-
sels, the question about the UK leaving the
EU is a hot topic and extremely interest-
ing. For me, it has entirely shaped my ex-
perience of the stage as a Brit in Brussels.
Turning the topic of UK- Euroscepticism
on its head, it has on several occasions for
me felt more like EU-British scepticism.
At the same time, coming from a country
where the EU seems to be regarded by the
majority as unpopular, this did not deter me
from taking on a prominent role in the stagi-
aire community. I have had the privileged op-
portunity to be Porte Parole for DG Transport
and Mobility which is also one big family with
the stagiaires of DG Energy. In this instance,
I never felt EU-British scepticism at all, and I
have met such amazing and talented people
from all over Europe. We have shared fantas-
tic experiences together, including away trips
and various social events, and within this cir-
cle of friends I have enjoyed the most fun, and
important, aspect of my EC Stage experience.
When David Cameron said in his speech that
‘our geography has shaped our psychology’
he was spot on. British people have always
felt somewhat disconnected from ‘Continen-
tal Europe’ as we like to call it, and are largely
individualistic on some matters. We drive on
the other side of the road, have a completely
separate name for almost everything and will
claim our history/music/art/sport/cuisine
(yes we eat more than just Fish and Chips!)
are amongst the best in the world. But, being
proudofyourcountryandcultureisnotaBritish
phenomenon, it is a worldwide phenomenon.
The UK-EU debate will continue in Europe,and
around the world, for many years to come. My
experience as a Blue Book Trainee in the Euro-
pean Commission five weeks after David Cam-
eron delivered the UK Referendum speech has
had an enormous impact,but one I am grateful
for. I have been placed at the heart of one of
the biggest debates in the EU’s recent history
and a memory that will stay with me forever.

32. 32
Reaching your ‘Ithaka’
‘And even if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled
you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas
mean’- Constantine P. Cavafy
Ithaka, which is in reality one of the most
beautiful Greek islands in the Ionian Sea,
has a symbolic meaning for Constantine P.
Cavafy, one of the greatest Greek poets. For
him, Ithaka is considered to be a destination
in life, a goal to achieve that is worth fighting
for.Yet for Cavafy it is not reaching your desti-
nation that truly matters, but the fight for the
achievement of your goal. He thus believes
that this journey should be long and difficult,
because this is the only way to experience
an adventurous life and to appreciate every
moment. He explains that we should not be
afraid of the obstacles that may come up in
our way because these obstacles are the ones
that make us stronger. Surmounting them is
the only way to gain wisdom and reach Ithaka.
Ithaka means the wisdom that you gain after
accomplishing your goals, the wisdom that
you reach at the end of your life. But during
our lives we all set many ‘Ithakas’ in our minds
as small goals. That is why Cavafy, at the end
of his poem, refers to ‘Ithakas’, plural. We are
creatingadream;thedreambecomesagoalas
we are trying to discover the means to make it
real.Thus,through our actions we are trying to
achieve our goals and reach our destination.
I don’t know for how many of you this train-
eeship in the Commission has been an Ithaka
in your life. I don’t know for how many of you
these 5 months in Brussels were something
that you really wanted to experience. For me,
this was definitely the case from the begin-
ning of my studies. As the years were pass-
ing by, it became not only a dream for profes-
sional but also for personal development. My

33. 33
first attempt to work for the Commission took
place almost two years ago. I did not make it
back then but I did not lose my courage. I tried
to enrich my Curriculum Vitae and applied
again. I remember everything clearly, all the
steps I followed to make it happen. The ‘bad
taste’ of the first failure and then the ‘beau-
tiful colours’ while I was preparing my appli-
cation during the summer time. Then the first
e-mail at the beginning of December, pass-
ing the first round and actually attending a
seminar at the European Parliament in Brus-
sels. Then the days that followed until the fi-
nal answer that was the ticket for my ‘Ithaka’.
Eventually this magical process of trying to
settle down into a new life in a new town be-
gan. I had been thinking for months about
what this Ithaka would be like when and if
I managed to find her. During the past ifve
months I have had the chance to live a one-
of-a-kind experience on both a professional
and personal level. Working in a professional
environment that undoubtedly respects all
the employees by giving them a chance to
‘flourish’, meeting interesting people from all
around Europe, exchanging opinions and cul-
tural habits, exploring on foot every corner of
the city and the different tastes it offers. Re-
alizing that Brussels is indeed the city where
you don’t feel like a stranger because ‘here
you are a stranger among strangers’. It is the
centre of Europe with an international envi-
ronment that makes you feel easily at home.
My Ithaka was in most regards as I imagined
her. Even in the areas in which I found her
‘poor’ – still trying to get used to the weather
- she has this magical colour. Everything was
so new for me and I wanted to get the best of
it by appreciating every moment. The journey
of the stage in the Commission is coming to
an end. I gained professional experience and
I made friends for life that made this journey
more beautiful. Day by day Brussels is be-
coming my home and I have already settled
into a new life here. Now I imagine my next
Ithaka and I am looking forward to this new
adventurous journey that it is about to begin…
Maria Deligianni

34. 34
The Commission Brain-Drain
Some time at the beginning of January I got
an e-mail from the Traineeship Office of the
Commission saying: girl, pack your bags and
you are hired at DG HOME (of course in dif-
ferent and very formal wording). I was sooooo
happy! At that time I was working at the larg-
est inner-city business school in Amster-
dam and I really needed a new challenge
in my life. I thought: Brussels here I come!
After a lot of practical organization (read:tell-
ing my employer I wouldn’t be teaching for five
months, finding an affordable place to stay in
Brussels, filling in 200 forms for the Commis-
sion…)atthebeginningofMarchItookmylittle
red car and drove off into the new adventure.
The first week at the Commission was an in-
troductory one, where we met the other sta-
giaires and got practical information on the
traineeship. I wasn’t particularly impressed
by the way all of this was organized, but
I didn’t mind. I was in Brussels, living my
dream, working at a European agency deal-
ing with asylum and migration. It couldn’t
get better…or so I thought. Little did I know!
At an early meeting in DG Home I volun-
teered to be the ‘porte parole’ (spokesper-
son) for the stagiaires and guess what? Ev-
erybody agreed. So I organized a little party
at my place which is still kind of legendary
(many parties followed). Meeting with ‘my
kind of people’ was such a great experience.
All human rights fanatics, idealists, and (al-
most) all of them Europhile. Friends for life!
In May we went on a two-day trip to the
European Parliament in Strasbourg. An-
other great advantage of being a stagi-
aire! It felt like one of those trips you re-
member from high school, everybody
happy together driving around in a tour bus.
Then there were the fixed social meetings on

35. 35
Thursdays: Place Lux a.k.a. Plux. It even be-
came a verb in itself:“Are we Pluxing tonight?,
Of course we’re Pluxing!’’ Especially between
18.00-19.00h when Happy Hour is full on and
helps us rinse away the stress of a day work-
ing at the Commission (yes, we also work!).
One night at Plux we bumped into Captain
Europe. Where else other than in Brussels?
We also convinced Csilla (a stagiaire at our DG)
to be the Head of Travelling and we agreed to
go on a trip to Mallorca! Next to all the social
events, obviously there is work to be done. I
was lucky enough to be appointed to work on
twoprojects:oneonthesoontobenewAsylum
andMigrationFund(AMF)andonehandlingthe
calls for the European Integration Fund (EIF).
Work at the Commission can be pretty stress-
ful, with lots of deadlines and lots of people
constantly asking you to help them. Every
day I loved being here, except for the week
I needed to take sick leave because I had
an inflammation in my shoulder, probably
caused by the bad conditions in my office
(computer dated from 1848, desk way too
high for my length and spending days and
days at the monitor because of deadlines).
I do see some room for improvements here!
As I write this little column, the internship
is almost over. About two weeks ago the ‘de-
pression’ overwhelmed most of us. We can
smell the finish-line. And to be honest: I
don’t like it. Five months is way too short to
be able to make a difference at the Commis-
sion. Way too short to network to be able to
have prospects to find a job at the Commis-
sion (which is a utopia at the moment). I am
trying to explain back home why it is so dif-
ficult to get a permanent job at the Commis-
sion, but it’s complicated. I wouldn’t want to
work as a so-called interimaire (temporary
contracts) and at this moment there is no
possibility to participate at the EPSO assess-
ments.So this basically means no prospects…
I find it really unfortunate that so many peo-
ple from all around Europe make the effort to
leave their country and their homes to be able
to work in Brussels, and after five months end
up with…. nothing more than a great experi-
ence, a good CV and a bunch of new friends. I
will call it the Commission Brain-Drain = NOT
GOOD. A missed chance to get some neces-
sary‘fresh blood’into the Commission’s veins.
All in all: I would probably do it again. But
to future stagiaires I would say: be realistic.
Have a great time, network, make new friends
and above all find yourself new adventures.
Now my experience is complete and
I’m off, - taking my red car, - driv-
ing towards my next challenge.
Au revoir Brussels!
By: Marika Zervos

36. 36
India, Bring Spring to Brussels!
If I had to describe my first days in Brussels
with one color, I would choose gray. Gray not
only in terms of gloomy weather, but also the
rhythm of life. People get up in the morning,
go to work, earn money, go out, go for dinner,
party on weekends. Unless you are a new-
comer who needs to get used to a metro that
runs on two levels or find your way around the
city, life seems to be more or less predict-
able, stable and in some ways comfortable.
At least the slice you get to taste as some-
one who has not been fully integrated yet. It’s
mid March. I have moved to Brussels to do a
traineeship at the European Commission. If I
look at my life exactly one year back, every-
thing seems totally the opposite. I was liv-
ing in Hyderabad (India) with more sun, more
adventures, more colors. People welcomed
spring in the craziest way I have seen so far
– splashing colors everywhere and at every-
one. They call it Holi, Hindu festival of colors.
It’s Easter break in Brussels, but no signs of
spring to arrive soon. Since I never plan my
grocery shopping in advance, on the day of
the second Easter I realize that all the su-
permarkets are closed, I have moved out
from a temporary place in Jette to a perma-
nent one in Etterbeek and find myself hun-
gry for all: food, colors, spring, India. “Those
small Arab shops should be open,” my flat-
mate tells me. So with a hope to find them
I get lost in the streets of Etterbeek. Etter-
beek is one of the 19 municipalities of Brus-
sels city. My Belgian friend told me that the

37. 37
19 municipalities are like 19 faces of Brus-
sels. Each has its identity. Jette, for example,
is a more traditional, Flemish concentrated
municipality while Schaerbeek is where a
lot of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants live.
And what is Etterbeek like? The municipal-
ity that is located close to all the European
institutions with the famous Schuman met-
ro station as a landmark. I have no clue yet.
I am listening to Chammak Challo, the sound-
track composed for the Bollywood movie Ra
One. Last year it was a hit in India! Cham-
mak Challo on streets, in weddings, in clubs,
loved by young and old. As I am looking for
shops, I imagine myself one year ago. Would
I ever face such a situation? In India, food
finds you wherever you live, wherever you
go. Street vendors follow you on trains or
buses, in the corners of streets, next to your
house, at touristic spots. Indians truly care
that you get your meal. “Had your breakfast?
Had your lunch? Had your dinner?” They will
ask you each time to make sure you are fine.
Here, it’s taken for granted. Maybe not for
those Arabs who have opened their shops on
a holiday (but that’s not a holiday for them,
I assume). I enter one such shop. Small and
compact. I am looking for bread, but can’t find
it there. So, I buy noodles instead. Then I get
out and walk further on until I notice anoth-
er shop. It’s actually not that hard. As I look
around the area, I realize those small shops
are not that scarce. Now it’s another Indian
hit on my MP3 player. It’s Subha Hone Na De,
commonly known as My Hero. It lifts me up. I
enter a shop. Too lazy to take off my headset.
I do enjoy the song, the powerful rhythm, the
energy. And I see fresh French baguettes on a
shelf. With no doubt I take one and present it
to the salesman. For a slight politeness I take
offoneofmyheadset.Hetellsme70cents.AsI
startlookingforcoinsinmywallet,heasksme:
“Are you from Poland?”
“No. From Latvia.” I don’t mind to answer.
“And you?” I ask in return.
“I am from India.”
“What?”
I can’t believe what he just said. I want to
give him my MP3 player as if proving - see, I
was just now thinking about India, listening
to My Hero and Chammak Challo, remember-
ing Holi and colors, but I say nothing of that
as if I am tongue tied and suddenly don’t
know where to begin.

38. 38
“Wow!” I exclaim. “You are from India! I was
living in India last year!”
“Really? Where?”
“Hyderabad.”
“Oh, that’s south. I am from north, Pun-
jab. It’s close to the Golden Temple.”
He tells me with a pride in his eyes.
“I loved India!” I go on. He smiles and keeps
speaking about Punjab. I feel like we both
have found each other in the right time and
at the right place. We both get nostalgic.
I haven’t paid him the 70 cents yet. Now af-
ter our nice chat it feels a bit awkward to
hand him the one euro coin I have prepared.
But I do it. And it’s even more awkward to
take the change - 30 cents. But I do it too.
He is a vendor, I am a customer. Just like he
lived in the North of India, I lived in South.
We part with smiles and for some reason, I
promise I will come to his shop more often…
I get out in the streets and suddenly notice
somethingIdidn’tpayattentiontobefore.Isee
Indian ladies wearing winter jackets and un-
der those dark, heavy jackets I notice colorful
Indian kurtas hiding from the winter. Spring
needstocometoseethosekurtasatfulllength
not only covering their ankles. I conclude.
Where is Spring? Where is it? When will we
finish this bad weather? My Italian colleague
complains to me in the elevator as he looks
at his umbrella scornfully. He is not the only
one.The entire city is waiting for spring. It be-
comes one of the commonly discussed topics.
Some weeks later I am running to the bank
in Etterbeek to solve a problem with my
bank card. As I am doing it during my lunch
break, I don’t have much time. I hurriedly
enter the bank. My cheeks red, my hair tou-
sled, I am gasping for breath. I see a family
being served before me. It’s a lady, her hus-
band and their newly born baby. I look care-
fully at the young man and suddenly notice
his outfit. He is wearing....what? Soft slip-
pers, sweatpants and a worn-out jumper
you would normally wear only at home. It
could be his pajamas. How dare you go to a
bank like this? Straight from your bed? I con-
demn him in my mind. But he smiles, looks
at his wife as she handles the bank proce-
dures, admires his newborn baby and doesn’t
seem to worry about anything in this life.
Then I look out the window and see a few
beams of sunshine.
Maybe he is right. Maybe Spring has arrived.
This article is also available online at inter-
nalvoices.org
By Agnija Kazuša

39. 39
A trainee in Brussels
Mariana is a very successful young lady
who is writing the first blog by and for
EU trainees and bursting the mysterious
bubble of Brussels traineeship applica-
tion procedures. She is giving us a unique
glimpse of her everyday life as a trainee in
the European Commission whilst also ex-
plaining her motives for moving and work-
ing abroad and giving recommendations to
young unemployed people around Europe.
Visit her excellent blog http://www.atrain-
eeinbrussels.com/ and read her story here:
Weasked….yourmotiveforinterningabroad….
She wrote….I had various reasons for want-
ing to move to Brussels (certainly the weath-
er was not one of them!). First of all, I want-
ed a career change and a pause from the life
I was living. I had been working as a lawyer
for the past two years in one of Portugal’s
top leading law firms, which was a great ex-
perience that taught me a lot of things and
provided me many skills that I will for sure
take along with me for life and for any future
jobs I have. At the same time, it was very
time consuming, stressful and demanding.
So I wanted to change from that and to have
a different work experience, in a different
environment. On top of that, being an avid
traveller myself and a former participant
in exchange programs (namely, one year of
Erasmus in Barcelona, a summer school in
Salzburg and being the “buddy” of exchange
students in my home university), I wanted
to have again that experience of being in a
multicultural environment, hearing differ-
ent languages every day, adapting to life in a
new country… and to work in one of Europe’s
greatest institutions, the European Com-
mission. Finally, I am from the “European
generation”, this group of young people born
in the 80’s who grew up with their countries
already integrated in the EU, having the euro
as a currency, travelling in low-cost com-
panies only with our ID cards, inter-railing,
ordering stuff from the internet with all the
facilities, so I am a really fan of Europe and
of all the things we accomplished together. I
really wanted to have a chance to contribute
in some way to the maintenance of a united
Europe and to have direct contact with that
reality myself. So I applied to this traineeship,
passed the several selection phases and fi-
nally got that “golden” email saying I had
been selected, to one of the units I was most
interested in! I was really happy, even though
I had to take the decision of leaving a stable
job where I was already working as a quali-
fied lawyer, to go abroad for 5 months to be a
trainee again. It was not an easy decision, es-
pecially given the times of financial crisis we
are going through and the employment market
in my country, Portugal, but I believe we have
to make the choices that make us happy and
given my age and career background, this is
the perfect timing for making such a change.
We asked: …what about the cultural shock….
She wrote… When I was moving, I didn’t ex-
perience much of a cultural shock, as I had
already travelled extensively through central
Europe and also… it’s Europe and I’m a Euro-
pean! There are so many similarities among

40. 40
us that it’d be hard for me to get “shocked”
by any aspect of life here. Plus, Brussels is
quite an international city, with many people
from all over Europe working in its European
institutions. That makes life in the city very
Europe-friendly for anyone living here. You
hear all sorts of languages being spoken in
the shops, supermarkets, on public transpor-
tation, in restaurants… so adaptation is quite
easy. Also, you can find lots of information on
the internet about the city and the process of
moving here, so I actually thought it was great
that I could deal with so many things from
abroad (like finding a place to live,sending the
papers and all the bureaucracy for this new
work, signing up for a mobile company, etc).
When I arrived, I had most things set up and I
couldeasilystartmylifehere(Ionlyarrivedthe
day before I started working and it was fine).
We were curious about
….her blogging experience…
She replied…. I decided to create a website
dedicated to“all things trainee”,given the fact
that there are so many young people moving
to Brussels for the same reason that I did,
coming to complete a traineeship in one of
the many European Institutions located here
or even in the private sector. I searched a lot
on the internet and didn’t find a similar web-
site. I found many from other expats about life
in Brussels, but none dedicated exclusively
to the perspective of a trainee. I have been
posting about the process of applying for a
traineeship here, moving into a new city and
how life is for a trainee in the EC, practical as-
pects of your daily life (like what are the best
and affordable supermarkets, where are the
laundromats located) and then sharing some
things I have been doing (like restaurants I
have been to, cafes, concerts, museums, etc).
…feedback from friends and colleagues….
The feedback so far has been great! It is a
good way for my friends and family to follow
what I have been doing and also for current or
future trainees to have access to some use-
ful tips. I have been contacted by some read-
ers, both by email and on Facebook, and they
all shared that they thought the website was
great. I also tried to spread the word about it
to some youth and student organizations and
they have been sharing it in their pages as
well, considering the idea to be very useful.
The funniest reaction I had was from a Rus-
sian association, which published my web-
site in their page with the headline “check
it and your dream comes true!”. I thought
it was a hilarious way of presenting it!
We noticed: she doesn’t only write great
stuff, she also finds time to work….
She explained… As far as work is concerned,
I really like it. Just the fact that I can be at
those places that I used to see on TV or hear
about in the news and sit there with some
of the people who are taking measures that
will influence the lives of millions of Europe-
ans, is already worth the experience. In ad-
dition, the work is indeed quite interesting,
everyone is quite competent and focused on
what they do, yet very friendly and welcom-
ing of the newcomers. And you can still have
lots of time to do things after work and to
enjoy Brussels. In the first days you’ll meet
lots of people and do many activities are or-
ganized by the Stage Committee. Also, there
are plenty of notices of events being sent
daily to your mailbox, so if you want to be out
of your house all day doing things, it is really
possible here, as there is so much going on.
And now the serious stuff: what would
she recommend to unemployed young
people from the fringes of Europe?
She can be serious too… For people who are
unemployed right now and looking for a new
job I would say to be inventive, not to be afraid
to leave their comfort zone and to have their
mind open. There is so much you can do in
the world, there are so many cool things go-
ing on, that sticking to our own country or to
the studies we did in college is so restrictive.
For instance, I studied law and have always
worked in that field for my short career so far,
but there are so many jobs and work experi-
ences I hear about related to other areas that
seem interesting to me. I think that I could
perform them with the skills that I have and
I could see myself totally changing my expe-
rience and my job searching criteria if I saw
that I was not able to find anything in my area
(or even if a good opportunity came up in an-
other area). Also, be good at marketing your-
self, identify opportunities, be aware of your
skills and of what you can give to the world.
Be quick at reasoning and at thinking “what

41. 41
can I do more here?”, take advantage of all
opportunities around you. And don’t be afraid
to change. I think moving from one country to
another brings a lot of advantages and makes
you grow a lot, so even if you’re “forced” to
do so by the current situation, see that as a
plus and as something that will change your
life for the better and bring you good things.
Think ahead and plan in advance (like, if you
come here for a traineeship of 5 months,
start thinking what you can do after those 5
months and dedicate your time until then to
absorb and participate in everything in the
way of gaining skills for that future plan).
And finally…how did this whole expe-
rience enrich Mariana as a person…
I believe this experience has done a lot to
enrich me as a person. I have daily contact
with the “best among the best”, people with
excellent CVs who gather here working for
the same purpose. Everyone selected for this
traineeship has a great background and when
you talk to them and share experiences you
can’t help but learn from them. Also, to be
working for one of Europe’s biggest organiza-
tions is challenging, to absorb all the infor-
mation provided on the first days, to see how
the structure works with all its rules and pro-
cedures. To have privileged access to people
who work here for many years and have lots
of knowledge and be able to ask them any-
thing you want, to learn from them. To be able
to adapt to a new city, with all its little tricks
that affect your daily life (see how the pub-
lic transportation works, how to order meat
in the supermarket, how to wash your laun-
dry outside of your house, how to cope with
a snow blizzard in middle of March when you
never lived in a city with snow, etc). Those
are all things that will make you become
wiser and more adaptable for any other fu-
ture change you may undertake. To sum it up,
you gain knowledge, in every aspect of your
life (whether it’s in work, languages, practi-
cal life, cultural, political, etc). And knowl-
edge is power, so I am sure I’ll end up more
empowered after these 5 months than if I
had stayed at home doing what I was used to.
Mariana Dias, you’re a star! Thank you!!!
Visit Mariana’s blog “A trainee in Brussels”
at http://www.atraineeinbrussels.com/.
Check out the Fraternite Citi-
zens’ Initiative on .fraternite2020.eu
Nadia Bonifacic

42. 42
In May the Politics and International Rela-
tions Sub-Committee took 49 stagiaires
to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The trip was organised so that stagiaires
could attend the Parliament’s Open Day on
19th May, with the Sub-Committee also ar-
ranging for stagiaires to attend an afternoon
plenary session at the Parliament on 20th
May. After the plenary, stagiaires had the op-
portunity to meet Finnish MEP, Nils Torvalds
(from the Alliance of Liberals and Demo-
crats for Europe), and Cypriot MEP Antigoni
Papadopoulou (from the Progressive Alli-
ance of Socialists and Democrats), Rappor-
teur for the European Year of Citizens 2013.
The Parliament’s Open Day was a hive of ac-
tivity, with hundreds of people exploring the
impressive Parliament building. Political par-
ties, the European Court of Auditors, the Eu-
ropean Ombudsman and the European Cen-
tral Bank all had stands lining the corridors
of the Parliament, raising awareness of their
work and answering questions from members
of the public.A number of stands had been set
up with interactive games,quizzes,and even a
Stagiaires Visit Strasbourg!
small football tournament, run by the Parlia-
ment’s Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
The evening, and most of the following day,
was set aside for stagiaires to explore Stras-
bourg, before attending the Parliament’s
plenary session at 17:30. During the plenary,
stagiaires watched from the public gallery of
the hemicycle as MEPs from the Sub-Com-
mittee on Industry, Research and Energy, de-
bated the issue of renewable energy within
the EU. The debates focused primarily on a
recent report by Research and Energy Rap-

43. 43
porteur Herbert Reul, on the current chal-
lenges and opportunities for renewable en-
ergy in the European internal energy market.
After attending the plenary, stagiaires lis-
tened to a talk from MEP Nils Torvalds, who
discussed the current economic crisis. Mr.
Torvalds stated that the economic problems
in Europe cannot be solved by Member States
on their own, as many of the issues faced by
Europe stem from technical shortcomings
of the euro. The MEP pointed out that in the
1950s, when Europe began the process of in-
tegration, economic development was stable,
andtherewasasteadygrowthrateof4%.“One
fundamental problem was that we all thought
that this would continue… Increasingly, bud-
gets were eaten up by the future, so that
states could only use around 10% of their an-
nual budgets.”According to Mr.Torvalds,when
the 1973 energy crisis led to Member States
devaluing currencies aggressively against
each other, the euro was designed in order to
stop this practice and the resulting economic
instability of the 1980s. However, not enough
attention was paid to the economic prob-
lems that could stem from a single currency.
Mr.Torvalds then took questions from the sta-
giaires. The first question concerned how of-
ten MEPs voted against the interests of their
Member State for the sake of following their
Parliamentary group’s policy. Mr. Torvalds
stated that it was a fairly normal occurrence
forMEPsto‘rebel’againsttheirgroup,andthat
MEPs were rarely ostracised as a result. For
the most part,MEPs trust their political group
and only rebel over major issues. “However,”
he said, “it is important to pick your battles.”
Another stagiaire asked whether he had a
positive view of Europe’s immediate future.
The MEP emphasised that Europe has a mor-
al duty to assist countries such as Greece,
Spain, Portugal and Italy, even if there were
low levels of confidence in the politicians of
those countries and in EU institutions. The
main difficulty is about how to help. “Europe
is heavily divided” said Mr. Torvalds, “and its
values are varied and changing… It will always
be conflict, but ultimately no Member State
can get through the current crisis alone.”
The next MEP to speak, Antigoni Papado-
poulou, also took questions from the sta-
giaires, as she was needed for a Parliamen-
tary vote. She was asked by stagiaires why
there is a lack of trust in the EU, and how
the rise of populism will affect the political
situation within Europe in the coming years.
Mrs. Papadopoulou spoke passionately about
the need to communicate the benefits and

44. 44
Written by Gabriela Belmar-Valencia
added value of European citizenship to the
500 million citizens of the EU, especially in
the European South, where the far-right is in-
creasing in popularity, and in the UK, where
David Cameron has promised a referendum on
UK membership of the European Union. Most
importantly, however, “we must reach out to
youngpeopleovertheissueofunemployment.”
On the issue of trust, Mrs. Papadopoulou
highlighted the lack of participatory democ-
racy within EU decisions regarding the eco-
nomic crisis. She pointed to the example of
Cyprus, where the Prime Minister was forced
to agree to an unpopular bailout deal, or face
bankruptcy. Whatever the merits of the deal,
said Mrs. Papadopoulou “decisions taken by
technocrats in Brussels are not democrat-
ic. Where was the voice of the Cypriot peo-
ple in the bailout decision? This is not what
Europe is about. Europe is about discus-
sion, solidarity, compromise, not blackmail.”
Mrs.Papadopoulou stated that austerity mea-
sures do not provide a comprehensive solu-
tion to the economic crisis, because they are
not accompanied by measures to stimulate
growth, and do not tackle social problems:
“they do not solve the issues of tax havens or
tax avoidance, which are also needed to win
back trust. Neither does austerity solve youth
unemployment.”Mrs.Papadopouloucriticised
the popular train of thought within Europe,
that young people from countries with poor
economies should move to those with better
job markets, stating that this is not a solution.
If highly educated young people cannot stay in
their own country, there will be no growth, no
innovation, no investment, and a ‘brain drain’
on those countries. “Europe must assist in
the development of an economic model which
will tackle these problems, otherwise we will
have a ‘lost generation’ of young people. Is
that what Europe is about? Absolutely not!”
The trip overall was a great success, with
stagiaires being able to spend time in Stras-
bourg as well as seeing the Parliament and
meeting MEPs. After Mrs. Papadopoulou fin-
ished speaking, the stagiaires had a short
break for dinner before piling back on to the
coach to return back to Brussels. Using the
internal coach microphone, stagiaire Ruth
Watson thanked the Politics and Interna-
tional Relations Sub-Committee for orga-
nising the trip, on behalf of the rest of the
stagiaires, who gave the Sub-Committee a
round of applause. “We know you all worked
very hard to bring us to Strasbourg,” stated
Ruth, “we’ve had a brilliant time, so we just
wanted you to know we’re all very grateful!”
The Politics and International Relations Sub-
Committee is made up of Ioanna Demosthen-
ous, Gabriela Belmar-Valencia, Kristina Muur,
Martin Ambrozi and Henna Martikainen. It
seeks to raise awareness of current affairs
within the intern community in Brussels.
This article is also available online at .inter-
nalvoices.org

45. 45
Place du Luxembourg vs.
Place du Chatelain: which one
do you prefer?
This is a story about two brothers. Like a
friendly yet competing tandem one invites
you on Wednesdays and offers you Thai,
Egyptian, French, Eastern European and
other food; the other one opens its doors on
Thursdays and treats you with beer or wine.
One prefers speaking in French as it also wel-
comes locals from the neighbourhood of Ix-
elles; the other one sticks to English as being
more international and has the honour to lie
just in front of the doors of the European Par-
liament. Despite differences, both of them
come from the same Eurocrates family; both
live in the same Brussels EuroBubble; both
gather European Commission and European
Parliament stagiaires, temporary and per-
manent employees. Let me introduce you to
Place du Chatelain and Place du Luxembourg!
Place du Chatelain looks happy and sunny on
the evening of June 5. It’s the day when Euro-
crates have been on strike,and the sun shines
so brightly that you can finally say: summer
has arrived.People are sitting in the lush grass
in the middle of the market: chatting, eating,
drinking, laughing, flirting. The next day it’s
Place du Luxembourg’s turn: the same kind of
green area in the centre of a square for people
to lie down peacefully, the same sunny day.
However, Place du Chatelain might be more
attractive to your nostrils. It enthrals you with
the fragrance of fresh roses and pea flowers,
fried meat and dried fruit, olives and spices,
red radishes and green salad,pastries and ba-
guettes. Smells are competing with each oth-
er and alluring you to taste different goodies.
Mohamed is from Egypt. He comes here every
Wednesday, sets up his stand and sells the
Middle East food. I buy fetiir (a kind of a pan-
cake filled with beef) from him and lie on the
grass to eat it. Somebody plays an accordion;
it is quite crowded with cars and bikes and
surrounding restaurants. I look at the range
of people that swarm the place. Locals from
the neighbourhood, couples, families with
small children, passers-by, and of course,
Eurocrates, especially on Rue Armand Cam-
penhaut where you can buy beer at a bar
and drink it while networking at round buffet
tables. I find some EC stagiaires there after
they have rounded the market. Since they
have been to both Place du Chatelain and
Place du Luxembourg, I ask them to compare.
“Chatelain is less partying, more networking.
It’smoreposh,”saysanAustrianstagiaireashe
eatshisoliveswithfetacheeseanddrinksbeer.
“So,willyougotoPlaceLuxtomorrow?”Iaskhim.
“Yes,” he confirms without a shadow of a
doubt.