Breaking Into the Brussels Bubble
About the author: Sean Gallagher is an FSI The Europe Center Global Policy Intern with the Lisbon Council. He is currently an International Relations major ’21 and Latin American Studies coterm ’22 at Stanford University.
One particularly impactful aspect of my experience at the Lisbon Council was the emphasis that the team placed on education.
The European Union and its single market are built on four freedoms: the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people. While visiting the European Union (pre-COVID), these freedoms seem simple: the Euro can be used in 19 European Union countries, and there normally are no border checks between member states.
As I learned over the course of the internship, the simplicity of the “four freedoms” masks a complicated set of relationships between European Union member states, institutions, and foreign countries. The range of institutions were difficult to understand at first: confusingly, the “Council of the European Union” is completely separate from the “European Council,” though both are institutions in the European Union (the “Council of Europe,” on the other hand, is not).
My introduction to the complicated world of EU institutions came in the form of writing up the European Commission midday press briefing every other day, alternating with my co-intern Lauren. Described as “that most regular of EU bubble rituals” by Politico’s EU Confidential podcast, the midday press briefing is the European Union equivalent of the American White House press briefing, where reporters ask questions of the executive branch.
Writing on the press briefings forced me to fully understand the issues facing the European Union and the relationship between different institutions. Reporters would ask questions about measures taken by the European Commission on the COVID-19 pandemic (such as the EU COVID-19 digital passport), rule of law in Hungary and Poland, and the ongoing refugee crisis.
The real learning opportunity came when I submitted my report on the press briefing to my boss. She would read it over and correct the many errors — I started with around 30 per report at the beginning and worked my way down to around two towards the end of the internship. In the back and forth, I learned about European Commissioners and their remits, the European Commission’s relationship with member states, and the delicate balancing game that the European Commission has to play between getting things done and respecting member state sovereignty.
Watching the midday press briefing was more for me than it was for the benefit of the organization, and I really appreciated that the Lisbon Council would take the time to educate me in the nuances of the European Union’s structure.
