Ion Ciorici

Brussels is the city with one of the highest density of people wearing ties on the km2.
I can divide the population of Brussels into 2 categories:
1) Those who are wearing EU ID badge, of course with EU logo,
2) Those who don’t: they can be simple tourists or not EU fans .
Sometimes I have the feeling that I am related to some terrorist groups, not because I am behaving like them, just of the simple fact how the police officers from
the entrance of the European Commission:

the entrance of the European Parliament:

….and all other EU institutions treat me. This time it’s not because of the color of my passport or my photo in the passport, but because of my high/tallness and not having a permanent EU badge with fancy EU stars . These Belgians girls (police officers) really like to control/check/pocket me. To enter in the European Parliament/Commission is like to enter the North-Korea’s cellar full of atomic bombs and the procedure is the same every day. First of all they need to draw you face, print your silly face on a 10EUR badge and then you ask your self, where the *ell are the EU funds. By saving money on EU badges, those hardly working parliamentarians/deputies can invest more effective the EU money: e.g. translating into ENG all the transportation descriptions in Brussels.
Anyway the experience from Brussels is a very very pleasant and successful one and of course the most harassed/forwearied one. Now I understand how is to be a politician (a small one ). Is very difficult to carry 4 bricks at the same time, but it seems that is much more difficult to absolve 7-10 interviews and presentations per day.
Since we won the Michael Bosak Award 2007, we also won the possibility to negotiate and present our projects to EU commissioners/ambassadors/ parliamentarians/deputies – a difficult job , but it’s a high honor when an EU commissar accepts your visit and gives you the chance to receive an internship or a permanent job.
Until today (8th of November) we managed to present our projects to:

EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth (Mr. Figel):

Milan Gala, Member of European Parliament:

Zuzana Roithova, Vice-Chairwoman of Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection:

with 2 members of the European Economic and Social Committee:

and many others who didn’t accept to make a photo with us …