Monday, October 6, 2008 - Our first real day on the EU!

First off, for those of you who have been waiting, "I'm sorry!" We have lots of meetings and lots of travel. I will try to update you as best I can.

Second, I would like to thank my new friends for uploading some photos since my camera and my computer refuse to communicate with each other.

Today was a hectic and interesting day as our first "real" day of meetings and business in Europe. Christina met all of us in the lobby at 9 am (All but Gary who was already off with Corina getting his new passport!)

We headed out to ARD - German Public Radio and Television Studios where we had the opportunity to met with Irmtraud (Irmy) Richardson who has been a broadcast journalist for over 30 years with the ARD.

ARD is the German version of NPR/PBS combined into a single studio in the Brussels correspond ant office. The goal of meeting with the media was for us to gain an understanding of the major issues of the day, how they are covered in Brussels and how that coverage varies back in the broadcasters home country (state). It was interesting to hear from their perspective what the hot topics of the day were, no surprise the financial crisis and Georgia. (The one near Russia NOT in USA peach country.) Gary joined us from the Embassy for the end of the discussion and a quick tour of the broadcasting studios. I have to tell you Irmy loved her Sarah Palin thank you gift!

After we finished the ARD tour we headed over to the GMF offices for a NATO briefing with Johnathan Parish, Senior Policy Advisor, NATO Policy and Planning, Office of the Secretary General and James Snyder, Public Diplomacy Division. They gave us lots of information about NATO and how NATO and various other organizations work together, however, what I found most interesting was the discussion regarding everyone's frustration at their inability to fully work together.

We had a very interesting discussion regarding the failure to fully capitalize on the successes through the failure of all the organizations to work cohesively together on humanitarian issues. It was interesting that there was the perspective that NGO's and the various governmental entities don't work well (if at all) together to coordinate services and infrastructure development.

Next we were given EU 101, a presentation on the structure and history of the European Union by Claudia Cola and Stefano Grassi both of whom were officials with the European Commission (which is a separate entity from the European Parliament). The European Commission upholds the general interests of the Union and is the driving force in the Union's institutional system. Its four main roles are to propose legislation to the European Parliament and the Council, to administer and implement Community policies, to enforce Community law (jointly of course with the Court of Justice) and to negotiate international agreements mainly related to trade and cooperation.

The day (as an entire group) ended with a briefing from Sinne Backs-Conan, head of the Brussels Office for Dansk Insustri (DI). Sinne is a past European MMF. She represents DI in Brussels, and abroad, as the voice of the Confederation of Danish Industry. Currently 11,000 companies are "members" of DI which aims to provide the best corking conditions for Danish industry in order to improve their competitive edge.

After this some of us had to grab taxis (there was a general public transportation strike so no buses or metro running) to head back to the hotel, freshen up and then run to our dinner host meetings. This is the first time we have the opportunity to meet with our hosts in small, informal groups. I went to a dinner with 4 other fellows hosted by Paulo Casaca, Portuguese Member of the European Parliament at the Restaurant Bifanas. It was a lovely dinner of wine, fresh fish from Portugal and lively discussion regarding the current state of the EU, the financial crisis and of course American politics.