I, like many other bloggers taking part in this, left the Brussels launch brimming with confidence about how much I have to say and learn about European politics. As I touched down in Athens airport, I began to feel Europe fading fast. Not however the TH!NK competition, which has been re-igniting my European light bulb ever since!
As a blogosphere newcomer, this is a fresh start for a wannabe old hack. My understanding is that blogging boundaries are free. That we can travel around openly in our cyberspace, experimenting with new ideas and styles; can break down barriers between traditional (read established media) norms and play around a bit. We can move away from strict editorial guidelines – woo - and make the personal, political, if we so feel. European politics, unlike blogging, feels like home ground, as I am someone who has spent most of her working life chasing, and taking, EU institution jobs in Brussels and beyond. The idea of Europe as a place still feels refreshing.
Being the classic case of Euro- expat (in Belgium for an EU job), living in Brussels made it so easy for me to engage in European politics. Every conversation I heard (or overheard), made me feel in the Euro-loop; I could understand how things worked – but mostly didn’t work, why everything took so long to get decided upon and I understood who the movers and shakers were. A drink on Plux (the hangout of many an MEP assistant and stagier) would be a pint full of info on the latest EU debates – with me engaging directly.
Those days are long-gone…or were until TH!NK! But writing about the EU elections is a lot harder for me since leaving Brussels, where I felt like an insider. Now, living in Greece, I am, once again, an expat, this time from Brussels. An expat- expat, twice removed from the UK. I have lifted myself from the social screen that gave me access to MY Europe. My daily concerns are interrupted by the flow of news about riots, corruption scandals, protests…Europe is once again a far off place…Brussels… the seat of those lucky Eurocrats with the fat salaries and glass offices. I have more pressing concerns than which of the institutions have more power and how to make legislation easier to follow in 23 languages. Living in Athens means there is less time to ‘dilly - dally on European problems’ – we have enough of our own!
What have European elections got to do with that?! Quite a lot perhaps… something I would like to explore throughout this competition. Europe does make sense in that sphere… …Europe makes sense to me. It is not Greece, the UK or Brussels, it’s a space not defined just by a place but a sense of belonging to all three places and none of them all at once.
Finally from me, is there an argument to be made that European identity - if ever there could be such a thing- belongs to the expats such as myself? Is it easier for some people to think of themselves as Europeans? Although clearly it’s not a thing you would say down the pub (unless you are an expat living in Brussels of course)…
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Interesting view about one core question. Have you been thinking what is European identity. The political elite tried to define it while designing EU constitution a few years ago (which is now in garbage and which mini-version is called Lisbon treaty). If I remember right then was an idea to describe some Christian values as same than values of EU.
The other aspect with European identity is if word European includes EU members and maybe wannabees or also the rest of Europe until Ural mountains or even wider region including e.g. Israel.
I am only wondering without answers. The only thing I know is that I have been feeling myself more familiar in Russia, Baltic States and Balkans than in western Europe and also I have been more familiar with Europeans than with Yankees.
Hi Ari, Thanks for your response. Yes, I guess I have been thinking about European identity indirectly. Whether the EU is a Christian club is a huge debate..but in relation to the upcoming elections is it any surprise citizens don’t vote for a club they feel no affinity with….I would argue, perhaps its those who feel European that will bother to vote, even if they are not familiar with the main debates.
Dear Christina, excellent way of expressing your inner thought… I surely see a professional author …trying to read between the lines…
Comments:
What is NOT Europe is the “lucky Eurocrats with the big salaries and glass offices”, “drinking Belgian bier with MEP’s and their “servants”” or finally living isolated in the Brussels’ ivory towers…made of non “transparent” glass!!!
What Europe IS: the riots in Athens by real people who demand more, the unemployed British citizens who keep on loosing their jobs because of the economic recession, the new Guantanamo on the Italian island of Lambedusa, the strikes in France, the raising unemployment rates in Spain… This is THE real Europe…
Instead of looking back with nostalgia to the nice old days, it is about time we re-shape the modern day European societies having in mind one single target: to meet the values and the ideals born within this continent: Christian values, values of classical antiquity (democracy, humanism etc), roman legislation, renaissance and many more… You don’t have necessarily to believe in all of them at the same time…but I am sure you can pick up few…With that perspective in mind, I can’t see how Iran, China or even Turkey could join the Euro-club…
Ari, RE “The mini-version is called Lisbon treaty”… as you probably know there aren’t many amendments from the rejected Constitutional Treaty to the Lisbon Treaty. I don’t think the adjective “mini-version” actually describes the Lisbon Treaty. For more check: http://jmecelab.com/2008/06/13/the-lisbon-treaty/
Christina, I will be reading you posts with great interest.
Filia
Stergios
I don’t think just expats feel European, but the aspect of ‘knowing’ Europe has a great deal to do with it, I think. You can’t identify with what you don’t know, so yeah, I think people who have traveled or lived in other member states feel more European, or maybe even World-citizens.
The question of a European identity is of course one of THE questions. I was wondering, when reading your post whether there can really be ONE European identity? You have hinted towards your own triple identity. This probably is the idiosyncracy of also this blog: so many different experiences and views, so many questions. Europe not as a melting pot but as a questionnaire in many languages!
Nikola - One European identity? I think only if its defined by lots of differences….although its difficult to talk about in concrete terms. European identity is interesting to me because as a concept it hasn’t evolved or been established - so hasn’t been bogged down with lots of the cultural stereotypes of national identity. Its still a possibility however in my eyes.
Stergios - thanks :-)) I also completely agree with your points - for Europe to be more relevant to citizens, it has to be made more clear what it actually stands for. Are there really any hopeful messages coming from the European institutions that make sense to ‘real people who demand more’! Excellent..
Simon -I often think that because its only the pple who are expats or spent time abroad who feel closer to this idea of being European or World-citizens, that it is an elitist kind of concept after all…..
The expat-expat perspective is the most relevant for the European elections, because 99.9% of voters do not have the insider perspective.
The difficulties we have in looking at Brussels from far away is reflected in the way we write about the EU. But I don’t feel that this perspective is necessarily bad. Because if we comment on Europe without the typical distorted institutional view, we force Brussels to react in non-standard ways - something that can only be of advantage for a closed circle that is used to communicate among itself…