Monday 18 October 2010 – Brussels
It was a beautiful but cold Monday morning, half past 7. Some third year students European Union Policies were just out of bed, others were already travelling quite some time. They all left with the same destination; The bus to Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg, which was departing at a quarter to eight led by Drs. Joost Frencken, Mr. Hans van Manen and Mrs. Monique Vermijs. The subsequent bus trip was long and agonizingly - Brussels is apparently not the most traffic jam-free city in Europe. The atmosphere in the bus was good although we just received the news that there were al kinds of strikes in Belgium and France. After about two hours we finally arrived at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). All drunk from the bus drive, we went inside and had our first lecture - of course not before we passed the security gates while intimidating men were staring at us. The lecture was being held in a small but nice room without any windows. We were told that the EESC gives opinions on proposals of the European Commission. As motivated as we were this morning, some of us were already starting to raise some interesting questions. After the lecture was being thanked by the students with an applause, the students had the possibility to get something to eat. Most of them headed to the cafeteria and ate a plate of Fries (Fritten in German), carrots and chicken. After everyone had finished their delicious and cheap meals, there was still some time left. Because no one was familiar with Brussels we just started walking. Brussels turned out to be a beautiful yet busy city. After our nice walk, everyone gathered again in front of the building from the European Commission. We were being welcomed by Mrs. Isabelle van Keirsblick. When entering the building we had to pass the security gates again and this time we even had to pull of our belts. While enjoying a nice cop of coffee, we listened to two lectures about the functioning and role of the European Commission. It was very interesting except for one of us. He had great problems to stay awake. At about five o’clock the lectures were finished and the students went back to the bus which now had the hotel as its destination. During this twenty minutes bus drive everyone was already looking for a nice restaurant to have some dinner later. We arrived at the three star hotel in a slum of Brussels. Everyone went to their rooms and some students could not resist taking a powernap while others were already immediately outside to go to have something to eat. At ten o’clock, the flick was separated into two groups. One was drinking in the hotel bar and the other group was discovering Brussels pubs. Everyone had a great and interesting day and the fun went on until the late hours.
Tuesday 19 October 2010 - Strasbourg
The next morning we had to wake up at half past six. No one was used to this alien times and many were having breakfast with their eyes still closed. Everyone got in the bus and to our great delight, the bus’ window wiper appeared to be broken. It was pouring rain outside so we had to wait half an hour before the window wiper was repaired and we finally left to Strasbourg. This was the longest bus drive that we had. It took about six hours before we were in Strasbourg. Luckily, Sefa, Ibon and Ivo were there to make sure that no one could fall asleep…. At two o’clock we finally arrived in Strasbourg at the European Parliament. Again first through the security gates. The first speaker was Mr. Vanhoucke. He clearly explained how the politics in the European Parliament works and what the role of European parties in Europe includes. After his presentation, at around four, Mrs. Esther de Lange, a Dutch member of the Parliament for the Christian-democratic party, took over the word. She gave us practical examples of her work in Strasbourg which made her presentation very interesting. Unfortunately, because of a tight schedule, she was only able to speak for twenty minutes. It was time to go to the room of the parliament itself. We heard that we arrived a bit to late because Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, was speaking in the parliament that morning. Two ladies escorted us to our seating’s. With any sense of an anti-climax was the room at that particular time as good as empty. We were not allowed to take pictures or make any noise. We tried to follow a plenary meeting about the European Union budget but when we noticed that the members of the parliament were not listening to each other, we lost our own motivation as well. What we did heard was that the Italian member was explaining that the costs of translation in the EU were quite limited. Only 1% of the entire EU budget is spent on translation. The funny thing about this is of course that 1% of the EU budget is 500 million Euro each year. At the end everyone was tired and at a half past five we went to our hotel in Colmar. “The hotel is about five minutes walking distance away from the city centre”, we were told. When we arrived at the hotel, it turned out to be that we were in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, the bus driver was willing to bring us to the centre by bus to get something to eat. Within an hour we were back at the hotel and the teachers gave all of us something to drink. Today was also Emmy’s birthday and although everyone already congratulated her in the morning, we now sang for her and some students even bought her a present. After this, we all went to bed early. But not before Ivo showed (again) that he was not ashamed for his body.
Wednesday 20 October 2010 - Strasbourg
Again it was an awful early morning. No broken bus or any other delays this time so we departed at eight o’clock to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as scheduled.
We now were already quite experienced in passing the security gates so we all were inside quickly. We went downstairs to the press room and a short movie about the ECHR was being played. After this movie, two young male lawyers working at the ECHR explained what they did at the ECHR. They had many examples which made there presentation the most interesting one from the excursion. Afterwards the students had the possibility to ask them some questions. It seemed that our active third year students had been waiting for this for a while, because there was no shortage of questions. After a warm goodbye, the students went back to the bus after first being disappointed that they were not able to see the real chamber where judgements are being spoken. Again everyone got back into the bus and our next stop was Schengen. In Schengen, which is only known for the Schengenpact, is really nothing to do. We visited the very small museum for about twenty minutes. Then we got bored. Some students went walking, others went drinking in the restaurant or visited the little centre. After doing nothing in Schengen, the bus was again already waiting for us. But before everyone got in, we wanted to thank the teachers for organising this excursion. We all gathered some money and we bought a bottle of good champagne for each teacher. Also the bus driver got a little present from us. We wanted to make sure that our oral exams will not be a problem any more. We went to Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a very beautiful city. It was even so pretty that the bus driver decided to drive three times the same lap through the city. Although, according to himself, it was because his navigation system failed. We arrived at our hostel. Everyone made a group division for the rooms and we dropped off our bags. Christian came up with the great idea to rent some Ping Pong badges. Increasingly more students were coming back from their rooms and all joined in playing Ping Pong. About half an our later we decided that we wanted to go to have something to eat in the city centre. We went to a Chinese restaurant where we had a delicious meal. We drank some alcoholic beverages and after we finished our meals we walked back to the hostel. We bought some beers on our way back and we sat outside the hostel the entire evening. When all beers were empty, at around 12, we all decided that we did not wanted our last evening to be over already. We went to Bar Urban in the city centre. We were only able to have one drink per person because the bar was closing at one o’clock. So after our last drink we had to find another bar. Luckily, some people were able to tell us which bars were still open. We went to the next bar and we spend the rest of our evening there. Although the prices of drinks were amazingly high, we had a great time. Everyone got back in bed at three o’clock and had a strong, but short night sleep.
Thursday 21 October 2010 – Luxembourg
Our last day arrived. No one slept more than three hours. We had breakfast at seven and we were supposed to leave at a quarter to eight. However, at eight o’clock there was still one student missing, Alexander. The teachers decided to leave anyway. While every student was still speechless about this decision, the bus drove away. We had to drive around the hostel in order to get back on the road. At that time we all were still a bit sleepy and we were staring at the hostel and there he was. Through one of the windows of the hostel we saw Alexander. He looked at the bus and the expression on his face was priceless. We went to the European Court of Justice (ECoJ) where we again had to go through the security gates. It was an enormous and modern building. We went to a small room where we were being prepared by Mr. S. van der Jeught on the hearing that we were about to attend an hour later. Meanwhile, Alexander found his way back and joined us again. It was a really interesting case about discrimination. After our briefing, we went to the hearing. Most of the students (and some teachers) were really fighting to stay awake. However, luckily, the longer the hearing took, the more interesting it became. The judges were beginning to ask some difficult questions and also the students were beginning to formulate their own opinion about the case which led to some interesting debates afterwards. After the hearing we had a short time for a break and we got our last lecture from this excursion. We were able to ask some questions about the hearing we just attended. Many students asked some good questions and they received real clear answers. We all went back to the bus to finally go back to Breda. We had a great excursion but we were also very happy to go home again after this exhausting trip.
All in all, we learned a lot more about the European Institutions. We have finally seen the places were it all happens and we can look back at a successful, interesting and joyful four days trip.
