I was contacted by the European Parliament in the UK office about attending an event at the European Parliament in Brussels with only a couple of weeks’ notice. Not knowing what the purpose of the visit was, or what my role would be, I tentatively agreed subject to finding a suitable travel option from Bad Reichenhall where I was staying for a few weeks before Christmas. In the end they booked a very early connecting flight from Salzburg to Brussels (meaning my poor boyfriend had to get up at 4:30am to drive me to the airport) on Tuesday morning and a direct flight returning to Munich (followed by a long train journey) on Thursday afternoon.
It turned out the trip was for a “content creator’s” programme of activities as part of Gender Equality week – the participants were nearly all young women (there was one man attending who was part of a Czech couple who run a martial arts company) from across 19 European countries. They were a fascinating group of inspiring people, from quite a diverse range of backgrounds including; a sexologist, lifestyle influencers, gamers, activists and women in business. Most of us had travelled very early in the morning and so were completely exhausted by the end of the first day (others arrived later, so didn’t join the programme of activities until the following day), which mostly involved meeting the DG Comms unit (The head of DG Comms remembered me from my “EU supergirl” activism but said that I “looked different” – I told him I had “grown up a bit”) and listening to some panel discussions. We were invited to ask questions but I found that their responses to our critical feedback and constructive suggestions were extremely defensive and somewhat aggressive, which I thought was rather unhelpful. We also filmed some videos for the European Parliament’s Instagram – they asked us to respond with quick answers to the question “what does gender equality mean to you?” I settled on; “Freedom from sex-based discrimination and stereotypes, freedom from gendered expectations and, above all, freedom from male violence.”
The second day started early at 8:30am, meaning another early start (it takes me an hour to do the full “EU glam up” and I was staying in a hotel 45 minutes away from the parliament). I decided to adopt a policy of only attending the sessions which were interesting to me and using the rest of the time for activities which I would enjoy (going to see an exhibition at Bozar, making some sketches of Brussels and buying Christmas gifts), so as to make the most of the trip and I therefore enjoyed the second day much more. I also decided to make some “visualisations” from the conversations, so that I would better remember the conversations – which had a lot of interesting ideas and information to contemplate. I particularly enjoyed the discussions with Lina Galvez, Chair of the Gender Equality Committee) and Antonella Sberna, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Evelyn Regner MEP, founder of the Gender Equality week, and Kira Marie Peter-Hansen MEP who was responsible for the Equal Pay Directive. I was constantly stopped throughout the day by people asking to take photos of my boots, including professional photographers – one of whom tagged me in a post on Instagram. I also kept bumping into people I know, which was lovely, including; a guy who helped me out by giving me enough cash to get to my hotel after I got mugged at Gare du Midi in 2018, colleagues from my organisation, the European Movement UK, and the European Movement International and people I have met through my campaigning. The Brussels Bubble really is a thing…
I skipped the lunch to go to see the ‘Love is Louder’ exhibition at Bozar – which included some really incredible artworks, by some big names; Tracy Emin, Carol Schneeman, Sharon Hayes, Niki de Saint Phalle and Marina Abramovic. It was really diverse in terms of media; paintings, drawings, photography, sculpture, textiles, AI generated work, video, etc. and also diverse in terms of representation of conventional and alternative relationships, the LGBTQ+ community, platonic and familial love. At the end of the exhibition I took up an entire page in their visitor book, basically summarising my blog post about my new tattoo.
My EU boots proved to be extremely popular inside the parliament and around Brussels, I was constantly being stopped with compliments and people asking to photograph them - including by a professional photographer who posted this photo on his Instagram.
I was mortified to discover Boris Johnson's book being sold in the European Parliament book shop....
But delighted to see these beautiful African quilts also for sale.
The third day was another early start, but an exciting opportunity to meet the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. She instantly recognised me as “the Brit” (I’ve met her three times before), and when she asked the group if they voted in the 2024 EU elections – and I replied “I didn’t” (too much amusement” – she said that I “need a new citizenship”. We were invited to ask her some questions, so I told her that I and another member of our group experienced daily trolling on social media and expressed my concern that women were being silence and harassed out of political participation and asked her what more could be done to hold tech companies to account and protect European Democracy. She explained some of the actions the European Parliament has been taken but also advised us to "ignore" the trolls - she said she stopped reading comments under her posts a long time ago.
The President posted a photo from the meeting on her Instagram with a rather amusing caption:
At the end of the meeting she told everyone they should try to come to the European Youth Event in June 2025 – and I said that I was already organising an activity with the Young European Movement, she replied “Ah - the Brit is organised!”. I then had to dash to the airport to make my 2pm flight.
Sketches from Brussels
I didn't have much time for my usual sketching, but I managed to make three during the visit:
I also experimented with my new gold pen after I bought a sketchpad which included some black paper but i'm not sure it turned out too well, so I decided not to share it on my Instagram.
The European Parliament "Official Photos"
Available on their Multimedia centre.
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