22 July 2011. I’m in Brussels. Tweets of Norwegian friends inform me that a bomb has exploded in the centre of Oslo. Another tweet from them later informs me that there’s also been a shooting at the Norwegian Labour party youth conference.  At this stage, we still don’t know what happened exactly. As I watch the news giving more details about the events, I feel a mix of anger and despair. I know this feeling too well.

25 July 1995. I’m in Paris. I hear there have been bombs in the busiest metro station of Paris. My family and I are aghast. My aunt commutes through this station to go to work. She was fine. Since then, seeing armed soldiers in the Parisian metro’s corridors has become usual. But I never got used to it.

11 September 2001. I’m in a car with my father somewhere between Grenoble and Paris. He’s just helped me find an apartment in Grenoble where I’m about to move. It’s around 2pm. We hear on the radio that a plane has crashed in one of the Twin towers in New York. Analysts say that’s when the 21^st century really started, just as WWI was the real beginning of the 20^th century.

11 March 2004. I’m living in Amsterdam in a shared flat with 12 other people. 8 of them are Spanish. I look at their mortified faces as they watch the Spanish national television relate the bomb attacks in trains close to Madrid.

7 July 2005. I’m still in Amsterdam. It’s early. I get out of bed, turn on the TV and soon realise there’s been bomb attacks in the London Tube. My boyfriend is still asleep. One of my best friends lives in London.

We all remember where we were during these events. I always get the same weird confused sensation: a mix of incomprehension, helplessness and pessimism for the future of humanity. I try to avoid anger. Violence begets violence. And violence is never a solution.

Last year on May 9, I wrote about the origins of my passion for Europe. I originated it in the story of my family, partly through that of my grandfather -born during World War I- who fought during World War II. In his last speech to the European Parliament in 1995, François Mitterrand said: “A twist of fate had me born during World War I and fight for World War II.”

A twist of fate had it that today is Europe Day and tomorrow the thirtieth anniversary of François Mitterrand‘s election to the Presidency of the French Republic. This man has always reminded me of my grandfather. Although there was little physical resemblance, they shared a certain intellectual elegance. They both were educated men, close to the rural roots of France, and both witnessed the worst atrocities.

A twist of fate had me born during the first European elections by universal suffrage. Two years later, François Mitterrand became “le Président”. He was still President when I was 15. I grew up with him. So much that it was unconceivable for me that another man could be President. Today I’m more interested in European politics than French politics. Still there’s something I’m missing on both scenes. National discourses and European discourses alike lack vision. Where are the charismatic figures à la Mitterrand? Where are the visionaries able to rouse the masses enthusiasm? Who is able today to shift mindsets with a mere speech?

A twist of fate also had the last WWI veteran die a few days ago. The rejection of war, the quest for peace built the European integration. My generation hasn’t lived during wartime. Reminding that we owe the longest period of peace our continent has known to the European construction is not enough to rouse young adults’ enthusiasm for the European project. We need a new vision and visionaries to lift and carry it along. What will be the European project of the 21^st century? Blog out!

Or is it the opposite? Last week with fellow Blogging Portal editor Ronny Patz, we became the first bloggers to be granted an accreditation from the Council. Actually, it was also the first time bloggers got press accreditation to a European institution.

A blogger tweeting with a press accreditation. Welcome to 21st century communication!

We covered the Competitiveness Council for 2 days – well actually Ronny covered 2 days, I could only cover the second morning. This happened thanks to the spokespeople of the Hungarian presidency aka Kovács & Kováts, whom we’ve met a few times since the beginning of the year to discuss the activities they could do online. Trust was built throughout these initial meetings. And with a little push from our two supporters, we got offered accreditations as a pilot project. This time only Ronny and I could go. Well yes, the other bloggers are either not Brussels-based or had day commitments they couldn’t get away from.

The spokespeople of the Hungarian presidency have reached out to the Blogging Portal editors to start a discussion on how to use online media to talk about the Council’s work. It has to be said that they got in touch with us long before the controversy around the Hungarian media law started, and that these people are not entitled to speak about it as of course, it’s a national matter and their mandate is to talk about EU matters.

After long debates within the Blogging Portal editor team, we decided to go and see what they wanted to talk about with us.

A small delegation of us went and met them a week ago. We had a great meeting, truly fun and inspiring. After 2 hours of open-hearted conversation, Gergely Polner, our host, stood up and I realised he was wearing trainers, something that was quite in contradiction with the classic suit and tie outfit he was wearing. Yes diplomats wear trainers too… because they are people too, just like the rest of us. Something most commentators of public life often forget.

Gergely Polner and Marton Hajdu have decided to open up a blog to share their experience as spokespeople of the EU presidency. It’s called Kovács & Kováts as a reference to the Tintin characters of Thomson and Thompson, Dupond and Dupont in French. The challenge: telling their own experience of the Council using the voice of people and not only that of institution representatives. Their initiative is truly innovative. Older generations of diplomats might consider it a “faux pas”, as Kovács & Kováts put it on their blog. Indeed, diplomats just as any other civil servants are not supposed to express their personal views on things. So how can they open a blog where articles are by definition personal? It is quite a challenge, indeed. But, actually in today’s world there’s not really another way. So long live their blog and let it show the way to future Council presidency spokespeople.

I’ve found on Un Européen jamais content this promotional video of Hungary, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Hungary. According to that footage, the Hungarians invented a lot of useful stuff such as the automatic gearbox, the autoexposure still camera, the refrigerator, the articulated bus, the soft contact lenses, gramophone records, Excel, and the colour TV set.

Wow! What a great country, right?

I liked this video. I thought it was good. Very good promotion indeed… until minute 6:45 where after informing us about all the great things Hungarian men invented they tell us, randomly, that… they also have “the most beautiful women on earth”! First, that’s probably far from true. Then, why do they need to say that exactly? Is that a touristic attraction? It’s totally out of place. Sorry, it completely ruined it for me.

PS: I love Hungary. Fun people, good food, great wines, fantastic lake Balaton, and also the ugliest men on earth… just kidding

Susana del Río, a woman with a passion

I cannot count how many times I’ve heard that Europe is boring, complex, technical, not fun, etc. However, I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the people I’ve heard talk about Europe with passion. Thanks to Alejandro from La traducción es la lengua de Europa, I’ve found a new one. A Spanish woman at that.

Alejandro has translated into English an interview of Susana del Río, an expert in European communication, that was originally published in Spanish on Encarna’s blog Más Europa. This is a great read for anyone who is genuinely interested in the European project as a grassroots-led movement.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blogpost saying why I disliked the .eu domain name ad.

Today, while reading an excellent blogpost by Mathew Lowry, I found out the .eu domain name has a new ad. One that moves. A better one.

This is what the previous ad looked like:

Now it goes like this:

I like it much better.

Did my blogpost have an impact? We’ll never know…

Icelandic volcano ash cloud simulation © Pietro Zanarini/Flickr

Berlin, April 15, 2010: I’m at the social media conference re:publica 2010 where we are organising a workshop with friends from the Blogging Portal. Little by little, I realize something’s wrong with the airlines. It seems an Icelandic volcano is causing a giant ash cloud, paralysing most European airports. We’re told it could last a few days… I start worrying about not being able to get back home. In this mess, we all try and find as much information as we can. I check Twitter on my BlackBerry. I discover the hashtag #ashtag, and through that, the Eurocontrol Twitter account. From then on, it became my primary source of information as it was the most up-to-date and the most reliable.

The Eurocontrol Twitter account went from a few hundred followers to a few thousand within a few days. All that thanks to the talent and determination of a lady, Aurélie Valtat, who is now nominated at the SimpliFlying-Airline Business Awards for Social Media Excellence for Airlines, category SimpliFlying Hero of the Year.

Back then, I was absolutely amazed by the way Eurocontrol handled the situation through Twitter. How Aurélie used Twitter during this crisis should be an example for all institutions trying to get into the social media world. She was informative, responsive, human, funny, genuine… she got it, I thought.

Aurélie has now become a friend and a member of the EU Girl Geeks. Please vote for her now! Not because she’s my friend but because she deserves to win. Go on this page, scroll down, it’s the last box at the end.

You can also read Aurélie on her blog Content Bit(e)s, and follow her on Twitter.