Bad news in Brussels

Today we have some really bad news – the European Youth Media Days will not take place at all in 2009, due to problems with the financial regulations of the European Parliament.

This is definitely not what we expected, given that we had reached an agreement with the Parliament in past years. We spent a long time coming up with alternative proposals, in order to somehow make the EYMD happen, but nothing worked out for 2009.

This is a great pity, because the last two European Youth Media Days have really shown the potential of a great network of young journalists all over Europe. We are currently working on possibilities for organizing future editions of the EYMD – we’ll keep you posted.

An international office

One of the best things about working in a multinational team is – despite the occasional misunderstanding it causes – the linguistic diversity. We’re always learning new expressions and about how other cultures see things. Like when we were discussing the EYMD programme the other day and we realised that in each of our native languages we have the same idiom, but expressed differently. So while in English we say “to kill two birds with one stone”, Germans say “to kill two flies with one fly swat” (2 Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen), and in Romania it’s “to kill two rabbits with one shot” (“a împuşca doi iepuri dintr-o lovitură”). Trust the English version to be the least logical – who kills birds with stones? We were also discussing tabloids and the most important page in them: “page 1 girls” in Germany are the equivalent to what Anglophones call “page 3 girls”, and in Romania they’re all the way back on page 5.

There’s bound to be plenty more language comparisons – especially once we get our organizing team together and welcome another 40 or so European journalists into our community!

Coordination team in Strasbourg

We’ve spent the past few days here in the press room of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It’s an exciting week – as it’s the first session for the newly elected parliament, which includes 370 new MEPs. No legislation is being voted on, but there’s still quite a buzz here in the press room – Monday marked the 30^th anniversary of direct European elections; and the election of the new Polish EP president, Jerzy Buzek (EPP), marks a milestone too, given that Poland only joined the EU 5 years ago.

So what are we doing here? Well, the EYMD are officially hosted by the European Parliament, and we (as part of the European Youth Press) are responsible for the organisational side. For this to work, we need close cooperation with MEPs and with Parliament staff, who we’ll be needing both to participate in workshops and discussions, but also to help communicate our event all throughout the EU. It’s important too that we’re really up to date with what’s going on in the Parliament between now and October – that we know what MEPs are working on, when we’ll be able to get hold of them – and that we establish as soon as possible who we want to work with. It’s also been a great chance to see the way things work from inside the press room and to begin working together in these busy, multilingual surroundings. And while we’re here, we’ve also managed to meet with the Council of Europe to discuss possible cooperation with them.

The new parliament has the potential to make for an interesting next term, with new political groups formed and an increased number of eurosceptic and nationalist members. 35% of MEPs are women, and members include 3 former Commissioners and 8 former prime ministers. This morning’s lively session reviewing the Czech presidency of the EU saw Nigel Farage of the highly eurosceptic UK Independence Party taking on Mr Barroso, seated just 2 seats away: “You don’t ever support the results of democratic processes, it’s all about power, it’s all about you and the institutions… I hope the Irish tell you all where to go!” Barroso’s only response was to point out that if Farage was allowed to display the British flag at his seat, then he’d do the same – and he happily displayed his own – conveniently available – EU flag. This afternoon, a joint press conference with EP president, Commission president and Swedish PM revealed more confusion than anything else about how things are going to proceed in the next six months until the treaty deadlock is cleared up. Interesting times…

Behind the scenes – an introduction

 

Our coordination team is finally all in the same country and we’re really excited to be getting stuck in. We’ve already spent a few weeks working from home, discussing ideas via Skype conference calls – across 3 time zones. As useful as online communication is, meeting up face-to-face on Monday has made things much easier. We’re currently in Strasbourg where we’re spending a few days in the European Parliament, but on Friday we’ll be back in Brussels and the EYMD office will buzzing once more.

Now that our team is fully operational here’s a quick introduction to the people you’ll be hearing a lot more from over the next few months. Jona from Germany and Anna from Northern Ireland (till mid-August) are Project Coordinators, responsible for overall coordination of the Media Days, from obtaining funding to relations with MEPs to publicising the event, and more. Denisa from Romania is Programme Coordinator, and also works on overall coordination, but is more specifically responsible for designing and supervising the programme. Between us we have loads of experience in journalism, new media, international event organisation, EU institutions and communications. Both Jona and Denisa were involved in last year’s EYMD organisation.

We can’t wait to see what ideas and initiatives emerge over the next few months – we’ll keep you posted!

Join the European Youth Media Days Team 2009

Creative? Energetic? Media-mad?
Ready to dive in? Join our Team on http://join.youthmediadays.eu !

From 14-16 October 2009, the European Parliament with the support of the European Youth Press will host the 3rd European Youth Media Days in Brussels.

More than 200 young journalists from across the European continent will gather at the European Parliament to produce print, online and audiovisual media, and to discuss European politics and journalism. This will be a unique opportunity for participants to interact and share experiences with young journalists of different backgrounds, to participate in workshops and panel discussions with experts – and to get an insider’s view of Brussels.

You can actively shape this event by joining our organisational team! We need up to 40 experienced young journalists, communications whizzes and organisational superbrains to facilitate workshops, communicate and promote the event, design the programme and organise and manage various parts of the event. Experience is a bonus, but above all, we want motivation and creativity!

This work experience offers an insight into the worlds of media and politics at a European level as well as a network of valuable contacts plus excellent experience for a future career in journalism or project management.

Apply for the team on: http://join.youthmediadays.eu/
Have a look at our Team Call on http://join.youthmediadays.eu/Apply_for_EYMD-Team.pdf

We are looking forward to seeing your ideas and building up a top-notch team for the European Youth Media Days 2009!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/EYMD
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/European-Youth-Media-Days/88701517827?ref=

Video: EU Cookbook (final version)

Photo Workshop: MINORITIES THROUGH A LENS

When we sat at that table we weren’t exactly so sure of what we were going to do…or to be. We tried to tell who we are in three adjectives, but… We didn’t know in the following days we could show them through some camera shoots. It’s in this way that the workshop “Minority through a lens” started.

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PRINT – EYMD Magazines, Tabloids, Papers

The bigger, the better?
TABLOID. A critical look at future EU enlargement

Fear your friends?
INDIGO MAGAZINE. How to deal with the rise of nationalism, exclusion and discrimination.

Free Press? Truth Hurts.
JOURNAL EUROPA. Telling stories of press freedom and its limits in and outside of Europe.

EUROpolitan.
The European Women’s Magazine

Orange
European Youth Media Days event magazine

Audio: United we stand

Audio: Breaking into Europe