The European Union from the inside!

The purpose of our long study tour was to observe the "playing of the political game" from within, by meeting with representatives from various countries to the EU (including the US), a representative from NATO, the EU commission, EU parliament, the European Council, as well as conduct a one on one interview with the  representative from a member state. With such a hands on approach to learning about the concepts in our books it becomes easy to make the connections which are necessary to understand the European Union.  What follows are pictures highlighting the trip to the European Union. Hopefully one can make sense of the various parts of the Union, the three most important being the commission (representatives appointed by national governments), the parliament (elected by the member state's population), and the Council (composed of head of state).

Flags of member states outside European Parliament

In the European Union Parliament building, this is my class and the other European Union class at DIS.

 We were able to sit in on a session of Parliament that was occurring, which was on biodiversity. Those areas that look like enclosed VIP boxes to the left and right of the chamber are translation areas for the different languages used.

We also were able to go into one of the chambers where the European Council holds meetings. Unfortunately, there was not a meeting going on at the time besides ours. What looks like the glass tank in the back is one of the areas in which the translators sit. There was another area akin to this one on the opposing wall.

Of course our study tour was not all lectures, and that is all to follow in a subsequent post. But to spark your curiosity I will give you a quick "bite" of my cultural experiences in Belgium.