Day 7 - Brussels: The Council of the EU, the US Mission to the EU, and Dr. Annaleis Vertichel

Today was our first day of "class" if you can call it that. We're essentially supposed to go on a bunch of awesome field trips. Best class ever!

We got up at 7am to be on the train for 8:30am. After arriving in Brussels, we headed on the metro for Schumann Station to our meeting with the Council of Ministers of the EU (wiki).

This meeting was super informative. It was really interesting to hear about how the EU worked from someone who worked within the EU instead of studying it or observing it. The man who came to speak to us from the Secretariat of the EU was a great speaker. Along with having a wealth of general knowledge about how the EU works, he wasn't afraid to throw his own opinion out there which I think helps us think critically about the information he's giving us.

For example, not only did he mention the improvements that have been made to the EU over the last few years with the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon treaties, but he also told us what he thinks needs to change. He gave me the same example that Marike did when I was talking to her about the EU: two official cities. Having the main office of the EU in Brussels and then the European Parliament in Strassbourg is costly (and environmentally unfriendly, as he pointed out. He worked for the Environment Ministers within the EU) when you are constantly moving across the continent like that. Not to mention that another important institution, the European Court of Justice, is in Luxembourg.

So after he gave us a general run down of how the EU works and his opinion of the processes, we got to ask questions and we did not hold back. The way in which he responded to questions about Turkey and the process of accession and the EU's involvement of national/domestic politics was really quite impressive.

One story that stuck with me was how the EU established political sanctions on Austria when an extremist right wing party was voted in to power in 1999. This surprised me because of the actions that the EU took as a result of domestic politics. It made me wonder how the EU would react to the anti-Islamic party in the Netherlands (PVV) that won a large chunk of the vote. OUr speaker assured us that there would be very little chance to use those sanctions because most parties have figured out how to conform with the EU's regulations on acceptable political platforms (which still seems somewhat undemocratic, but given Europe's history with Communism and Fascism, that seems acceptable.)

Another interesting point is language. The EU has 2 working languages--English and French, but every country needs to be able to access all information in their own language. With 27 member countries, I can imagine this takes up a lot of time and probably proves to be quite inefficient.

Lastly, this presentation really openned my eyes to the informalness of politics. While much of the show is put on at formal, official meetings and conferences, much of the political work is done in the hallways between meetings or during the lunches and dinners had by EU ministers. That's the kind of stuff that I want to get into eventually.

After this meeting, we went for lunch. Nicole, Yas, Adam and I had an interesting experience with an old man who had an mismatching suit, a pseudo-briefcase, and a yellowing newspaper tried to show us his favourite place to eat. He said he worked for the stock exchange but didn't know where Canada was. At that point in the conversation we decided to duck into a restaurant and hopefully lose him...

After lunch, we met up with Dr. Brooks who had just arrived in Brussels outside the US Embassy. We went through security 2 at a time and met with Virginia Stern, a diplomat with the Public Affairs department with the US foreign service. While I found most of her answers to our questions very vague, it was really great to meet her. She inspired me quite a bit, seeing as she was only 33 and on her second tour with the Foreign Service. That's quite young to already have a portfolio. It gives me hope that my time in the foreign service will come soon, if that's where I decide to go.

And the last item of the day was a lecture on Minority Representation Rights in the EU from Dr. Anneleis Verstichel. She's done a lot of work in exploring the way minorities represent themselves in parliaments and governments and political theory (from a legal perspective) on how minorities should be legally represented in a country.

Based on her presentation, it really seemed like there was no right way to represent a minority. However, her presentation did reinforce my dislike for the first-past-the-post system. She also exposed me and I'm assuming my fellow students to interesting electoral laws regarding the percentage of the vote you need to be a party in the Parliament (Russia and Turkey have had large problems of this kind). She used Canada and Quebec a lot as examples. But she didn't really seem to have a conclusion which I found interesting.

But seeing as it's 1:30am here, I think its time for bed.

Good night!