Week Sixteen

Cultural

This week was our long awaited trip to Brussels to visit the European parliament, as I have already been to Bruges I was excited to see what the French speaking part of Belgium was like. I also wanted to know a bit more about the European parliament and how it affects me.

After a early start and a short nap on the bus we arrived at the parliamentarian, we went through security and were given a tour of the building using a smart phone and headset, it was very interesting, there was a room set up in a circle to look like a mini European parliament, we watched a video which spanned 360 degrees of the room telling us about the parliament and how it worked, it was very interesting  and with the surround sound  it felt like you where actually in the middle of the parliament.

The European Parliament is the only directly-elected EU body and one of the largest democratic assemblies in the world. Its 754 Members are there to represent the EU's 500 million citizens. They are elected once every five years by voters from across the 27 Member States.

Interestingly the European parliament is divided not by country but by your political beliefs and party. There are several translators constantly working making sure everyone understands each other  as the member addresses the parliament in his or hers own native tongue. The legislation and amendments are made by the parliament and council; the council can either reject the amendments or pass them on to the European commission who draft a bill before it can be made into law.

This means each party has to get a majority before a vote, and the process means a lot of talking, lobbying and persuasion, this can take at least a year. The European parliament deal with issues like healthcare, economy, welfare, crime, education and the environment, so what they do really does affect people all over Europe and therefore although I didn't think before, it has an effect on my life.

After a talk about more details of the parliament we had a chance to experience the European parliament for ourselves through a role play game, we were given a smart phone with the name and party of an actual member of parliament, I was Isabella from Belgium and a member of the environmental party. We then had group meeting and had to decide which of the two issues we wanted to work on, half our group choose water management as they were Dutch this topic appealed to them, my group choose the issue of using micro chip on humans. We then had to run around the centre and gather information to help us form an argument, at the meeting with all the other parties we discussed the topic and used our argument to gain a majority. At the end we had to present our topics and then had to comprise to get our amendments made into law. It was a wonderful afternoon and because the whole game was interactive it made it more interesting , meaning that I now know more about the parliament than before.

Quote found at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/0025729351/Organisation-and-work.html accessed on 30/05/2013