Bruxelles

Today, I spent the day in Brussels visiting some of the main EU institutions.

A very long day, arriving in Brussels at 10am, leaving at 6pm, listening to presentations and asking questions non-stop in the meantime.

I've always been a supporter of the European project. When the referendum on the European constitution (a horrible name for the Lisbon treaty) in 2005 was voted down in the Netherlands I was in Japan (and voted from there) surrounded by a fairly pro-constitution crowd of Dutchies. I was shocked to find out what had actually happened in the Netherlands in the run-up to the referendum.

This also means that I was quite curious to finally go and see the institutions where it happens, hear more about how it works, and talk to the people working as part of this circus. During the day, we spoke to lobbyists, government staff, EU staff, journalists, politicians - so it gave a fairly varied image of what goes on. But of course, all of these people broadly support what happens in Brussels; they wouldn't be doing their particular jobs if they didn't I guess.

Nevertheless, an interesting but exhausting day. Back to semi-regular work tomorrow!

The above picture is taken from the main entrance of the building of the European Council: a huge balloon with all the European flags going around it.

Democracy is overrated

Someone told me a few months ago that in my search for the perfect career I should pay more attention to the times that I get worked up or upset or excited about something. Admittedly, this doesn't happen all that much so strongly.

But, the thing that made me mad today was on the front of tonight's newspaper: one of the three coalition parties in the Netherlands (and many of the opposition parties) still thinks we should go ahead with a second referendum on the newly agreed European treaty.

Although it'll be months before an official decision is made I'm sure this'll be in the news for a while coming. It was a bad idea in the first place when they tried it two years ago. You cannot have the public decide on such a complex and huge issue by just answering Yes or No in a referendum.

Although I can understand that the policitians need to show the public that they did take the concerns at that time seriously. But they should also have the confidence that they did listen well (if the debate would have continued in a constructive way like it should have) and that the current treaty is the result of those concerns two years ago. Why does it warrant another referendum? Because I'm not confident that we'll get a Yes-vote out of it this time...

The European Union strikes me as inevitable and the Netherlands has a lot to gain from it.

Okay, maybe I'm overreacting. I hope they'll decide against it after all.

But still, is it bad that I sometimes think too much democracy is a bad thing?