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Immersed in the Brussels bubble

Margaritis Schinas said: "We want this Commission to be remembered for transparency and accountability" | European Parliament

Immersed in the Brussels bubble

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Gabriella Adèr, a Dutch crime reporter, has used funding from the Dutch Fund for Special Journalism to dive deep into the Brussels bubble. The result is a 6,000 word essay in De Groene Amsterdamme. The original essay is available only in Dutch for the time being, but here are the highlights in English of what Adèr — a self-described “outsider with no experience of political reporting at all” — found:

Life is a buffet in the Parliament microcosm: An MEP explained from her office, “I don’t go anywhere besides my hotel or this building, because everyone comes to me. Lobbyists, policymakers, experts … If I have to walk two blocks for a debate, I already think ‘why can’t you come here?” She and other MEPs admitted to being a bit embarrassed that they never even go inside the city of Brussels. Adèr concluded the Parliament “is actually a professional Erasmus exchange for adults.”

‘My expat prison’: To get ahead in the bubble, according to most of the young people Adèr meets, you have to give yourself completely to the bubble. “Your network is everything,” said one. When you do that, you can win a life where your children’s school fees are covered and your back garden is big. But as a long-term Commission staffer asked Adèr: “How can I know what European citizens want? How can they understand what the hell I am doing here?”

Love the competence you’ve got: Adèr met dozens of people struggling to match their passions to their actual powers. Their constituents want jobs and security, but sometimes all they can offer is a meeting or a free trip to the Parliament in Brussels. “10,000 migrant children are missing in the EU, but that theme I get barely on the plenary agenda,” complained an MEP.

The midday trenches: Journalists often get sneered at by Commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas, said Adèr, instead of being given proper answers. When one journalist wanted to know something about an upcoming summit, he got a nasty “I don’t have my crystal ball with me” response from Schinas. On the Juncker system of centralized press management rather than spokespeople and press officers for each commissioner: “The idea is nice, but its implementation is totally counterproductive. In practice, this means a wave of ‘look-how-good-we-do-it’ messages,” but little else. Adèr concluded that real information comes only when the cameras are off, and after critical journalists have been bullied into submission.

What’s next? “Nearly everyone I speak to feels and recognizes the criticism of the EU, but does not know how to deal with this,” wrote Adèr. “I conclude that politicians are trapped in a Catch 22,” and “right now they seem to have chosen to lay low.” But, “You can feel that there is something cooking in the bubble; slowly and informally people are talking about reform and changing the system.” What could make the difference? “They should talk to people outside the bubble more, really listen to the answer, and act on it. Because the future of the EU is at stake.”

Authors:
Ryan Heath 

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