Notes from The Parliament
Politics is often romanticized. Whether in film, on television, or in the news, we expect our politicians to rise in glory and fall in disgrace; that is simply how it is done. However, as citizens of democracies, we rarely think about the day-to-day work of policymaking, which is unequivocally more important than any individual scandal or televised debate. The European Parliament defies this pattern by making effective policy its top priority.

The buildings themselves are purpose-built for policy debate, with meeting rooms of all sizes, each with varying numbers of translation booths: There are rooms that are tailored to every size of meeting, conference, hearing, vote, and discussion. The hemicycle sets the standard for these rooms, with enough seats for all 751 members of the European Parliament (MEPs), booths for interpreters for all 24 official EU languages (as well as a few more), and microphones and headsets at every seat. Smaller rooms, used by committees and political groups, may have fewer seats, but maintain a commitment to inclusivity by providing translations. Especially if a meeting is recorded, as all sufficiently large meetings are, interpreters will continue working even when no one in the room is tuned to their channel. Their work makes it possible for citizens across the EU to watch and understand the meetings live.
The MEPs are an inspiration as well. Despite vast political and ideological differences among the members, they are consistently able to find compromises. Every MEP who desires to speak may do so, regardless of the popularity or orthodoxy of her beliefs.

Within the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Group (ALDE), I have been assigned to policy advisors who work on issues in the purview of the Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) Committees. These policy advisors assist the 68 ALDE MEPs, who come from liberal parties all over Europe. Recent meetings in AFCO have focused on Brexit, whereas LIBE has been occupied with issues surrounding migration, refugees, border controls, statelessness, and the plight of unaccompanied minors entering the EU. I had the opportunity to sit in the hemicycle during the recent High-level Conference on Migration Management, which brought together some of the highest-ranking EU officials, including the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini. These speakers laid out a renewed vision for reforming the current system of migration management in the European Union, and kicked off a series of discussions with members of national parliaments that lasted till the early evening.
Thus far, my work has mostly entailed information gathering and consolidation for my policy advisors, when they might need records of what happened during meetings or information to help them brief MEPs in the weeks and months to come. I was recently assigned a longer-term project, for which I will need to bring together research from a variety of sources on the current migration management system to help my policy advisor work with MEPs to think about ways to reform the current procedures that dictate how asylum applicants are processed after their arrival in the EU.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my perspective on the European Parliament. I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to sharing more with you.
Written by Michael Rover ’19, Political Science major at Stanford University. He is interning for The Europe Center at the Alliance of Liberals & Democrats in Europe in Brussels, Belgium.
