:00:02. > :00:12.thing I have always tried to ensure is there is a pen on the table that
:00:12. > :00:42.
:00:42. > :00:46.works. Ah, Brussels.
:00:46. > :00:49.We are going to be spending a lot of time here because it is where most
:00:49. > :00:52.of the power lies in the EU and three institutions are more powerful
:00:52. > :01:02.than the rest. First of all, let's visit the home
:01:02. > :01:11.
:01:11. > :01:14.home to the commission. The people that work in this
:01:14. > :01:19.building see themselves as the guardians of the European ideal. The
:01:19. > :01:29.keepers of the EU flame. All the power lies on the 13th floor. So
:01:29. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:33.they are not superstitious. The reason the 13th floor is
:01:33. > :01:36.important is because the commission is the only part of the EU that's
:01:36. > :01:39.got the power to bring forward new legislation. Up here, you will find
:01:39. > :01:42.the president and his commissioners, so that's one from each member
:01:42. > :01:45.state, and each is responsible for a different policy area. Every
:01:45. > :01:50.Wednesday, they meet in there. The president is elected by national
:01:50. > :01:53.leaders and he is serving his second four-year term. His commissioners
:01:53. > :01:55.are selected by the member States and approved by the European
:01:55. > :02:00.Parliament and Connie Hedegaard is one of them.
:02:00. > :02:02.She is Danish and responsible for policies on climate change. When we
:02:02. > :02:10.caught up with her, she was finalising new pollution standards
:02:10. > :02:14.for cars and vans. Is this a typical day? There is not
:02:14. > :02:18.such a thing as one typical day, but it is typical that we are not idle,
:02:18. > :02:21.sitting in the offices, not knowing what to do.
:02:21. > :02:29.As she meets and greets the great and good, she is surrounded by her
:02:29. > :02:32.political advisers. The commission has been accused of
:02:32. > :02:36.being overly powerful, but the system has been reformed to make it
:02:36. > :02:42.appear more, well, more open. Do you feel that you have got a lot
:02:42. > :02:50.of power? Yes, because it is our job to present the proposals. What is
:02:50. > :02:53.sometimes overlooked, we don't have total powers. I can present this
:02:53. > :02:56.cars proposal, but it will not be law in Europe until the Governments
:02:56. > :02:59.and the European Parliament basically have nodded to this.
:02:59. > :03:04.All that is supported by 30,000 civil servants, recruited from a
:03:04. > :03:08.multi-lingual process. Sometimes the commission is enforcing existing
:03:08. > :03:11.rules. For example, one case which involve
:03:11. > :03:17.the import and export of step ladders! See, it is not all high
:03:17. > :03:27.politics around here, you know! Now, come with me to the European
:03:27. > :03:34.
:03:34. > :03:44.survived survived your home equivalent of
:03:44. > :03:56.
:03:56. > :04:00.PMQs and you have arrived for a the European Council. They happen at
:04:00. > :04:02.heads of Government level four times a year and they are the only part of
:04:02. > :04:05.the EU where the individual countries are represented. The
:04:05. > :04:09.council also meets at ministerial level, so sometimes it is finance or
:04:09. > :04:13.agriculture or energy ministers on the red carpet instead.
:04:13. > :04:16.And this is where the meetings happen. They are chaired by the
:04:17. > :04:20.president of the council, Herman Van Rompuy, who sits there. Then the
:04:20. > :04:23.leaders like Angela Merkel and David Cameron sit round this table and the
:04:23. > :04:27.negotiations start. But having said that, a lot of the
:04:27. > :04:37.work has been done in advance by diplomats.
:04:37. > :04:43.
:04:43. > :04:45.What was that? Advisers aren't always allowed in
:04:45. > :04:48.the room, but famously during negotiations over the treaty, John
:04:49. > :04:54.Major's right-hand man hid under the table and passed him notes. Here.
:04:54. > :04:57.Ah, thank you very much. It says lots of decisions here have
:04:57. > :05:01.to be unanimous, but some are taken by qualified majority voting and
:05:01. > :05:03.that's where each country gets a set number of votes based on their
:05:03. > :05:06.population size and it is more complicated than getting 50% of
:05:06. > :05:09.them, but that system is going to change in 2014.
:05:09. > :05:12.In the future, the meetings will happen in this new building that's
:05:12. > :05:13.going up next door where the president will also have a swanky
:05:13. > :05:16.office. When the leaders are finished
:05:16. > :05:19.talking, they put aside their differences for the family photo.
:05:19. > :05:22.Brussels insiders measure the length of a council meeting by the number
:05:22. > :05:24.of shirts that were needed, a one shirter was short. A four shirter
:05:24. > :05:28.was not. And when the famously gruelling
:05:28. > :05:38.meetings are over, all that's left is to defend your decisions to the
:05:38. > :05:40.
:05:40. > :05:50.Elections for it will be held across This place is enormous. It covers
:05:50. > :05:51.
:05:51. > :05:55.500,000 square meters. The most exciting part is the hemicycle.
:05:55. > :06:00.We will not be seeing it because it is closed after enormous cracks
:06:00. > :06:10.appeared in the ceiling. So come with me on a search for
:06:10. > :06:17.
:06:17. > :06:19.alternative interesting things in hole where official papers are
:06:19. > :06:22.delivered, which means there are 754 of these. They are organised
:06:22. > :06:26.alphabetically within countries. The only thing there is more of is
:06:27. > :06:31.art. The walls of this place are covered in it.
:06:31. > :06:36.The biggest piece is this one. It is by a Belgium sculptor and it is
:06:36. > :06:39.called Confluences. It is a sort of hymn to European
:06:39. > :06:49.togetherness in stainless steel and it runs through the middle of the
:06:49. > :06:49.
:06:49. > :06:52.building. Then there is the fact that there is
:06:52. > :06:54.weird stuff just dotted around over the place, like this grand piano
:06:54. > :06:56.donated by the people of Estonia to mark their country's 90th
:06:56. > :07:06.anniversary. How does the Estonian National
:07:06. > :07:18.
:07:18. > :07:22.buildings costs about a tenth of one percent of the total EU budget, so
:07:22. > :07:25.around 190 million euros a year. It is a very open place. They will let
:07:25. > :07:30.you film everywhere and the only thing off limits are the bars and
:07:30. > :07:34.restaurants. I can tell you that one of them is
:07:34. > :07:37.called the Mickey Mouse bar on account of the fact that the chairs
:07:37. > :07:40.in it are reminiscent of a certain Disney character! Sadly, they have
:07:40. > :07:46.got rid of most of them now and these are museum pieces.
:07:46. > :07:56.Talking of museums, there is one here called the Parliamentarian. It
:07:56. > :08:01.is amazingly hi-tech. A no trip to a tourist attraction
:08:01. > :08:05.would be complete without a visit to the gift shop. Here are some of the
:08:05. > :08:15.things you can pick up, but I can think of a few people who would
:08:15. > :08:28.
:08:28. > :08:30.institutions are laid out in a sacred texts - the treaties. Well,
:08:30. > :08:33.copies of them, the real ones are in Rome.
:08:33. > :08:41.Philip Evans prepares them for signing and looks after them in the
:08:41. > :08:44.climate controlled chambre fort, the strong room. First surprise - they
:08:44. > :08:54.don't come in books, but big boxes. This is the Croatian succession
:08:54. > :08:56.
:08:56. > :09:02.have here is treaty and its annexes and primary law and the final Act.
:09:02. > :09:05.All this here is Croatian. A treaty has to be agreed by every
:09:05. > :09:07.Prime Minister and president through a process called the
:09:07. > :09:16.inter-governmental conference. Once they are drafted, they go
:09:16. > :09:26.Then a treaty has to be ratified by each member state. Some put it to a
:09:26. > :09:29.
:09:29. > :09:34.all. The Treaty of Rome signed in 1957 by
:09:34. > :09:37.the six original member states. It sets out the idea of a Common Market
:09:37. > :09:44.and the principle of ever closer union for the peoples of Europe.
:09:44. > :09:48.The UK wouldn't join until much later.
:09:48. > :09:56.This one, which weighs a tonne, by the way, is what Britain signed to
:09:56. > :09:58.join the European Community in 1973. And here is the Maastricht Treaty
:09:58. > :10:08.signed in 1992, which transformed the plain old European Community
:10:08. > :10:08.
:10:08. > :10:12.into the fully fledge European Union.
:10:12. > :10:17.Now, each new treaty amends the original Treaty of Rome, so if you
:10:17. > :10:19.EU operates today, you need to read this one, the Treaty of Lisbon
:10:19. > :10:26.signed in 2007. But I'm told some governments prefer getting their
:10:26. > :10:29.treaties in this format now. The treaties are where the EU takes
:10:29. > :10:31.its great leaps forward, or backwards depending on your point of
:10:31. > :10:33.view. Look closely and you will notice our
:10:33. > :10:37.friend Philip who organises the signing ceremonies, giving him a
:10:37. > :10:44.ring side seat to history. One thing I have tried to do is
:10:44. > :10:52.ensure there is a pen on the table that actually works. His parents get
:10:52. > :11:02.used more than you might think. The EU signs 100 other types of official
:11:02. > :11:02.
:11:02. > :11:05.As a reporter for the BBC's Politics Europe programme, I have spent the
:11:05. > :11:10.last year exploring Brussels, finding out how it works and trying
:11:10. > :11:13.it to get behind the jargon so you can feel like an insider too.
:11:13. > :11:23.Believe it or not, hardened Europhiles sometimes want to escape
:11:23. > :11:26.
:11:26. > :11:29.this city. And I fancy a change of scene too.
:11:29. > :11:32.Every month, what feels like the whole of the EU heads here to
:11:32. > :11:35.Strasbourg, where the Parliament has its official sittings.
:11:35. > :11:37.It is a source of great pride for the French, and immense annoyance
:11:37. > :11:40.for MEPs and their staff who hate trekking here.
:11:40. > :11:43.But the EU has a third great institutional city, Luxembourg. I
:11:43. > :11:49.better pack a map for this one! The European Court of Justice is
:11:49. > :11:59.here. That's the European Investment Bank.
:11:59. > :11:59.
:11:59. > :12:01.Those are the offices of the European Parliament.
:12:01. > :12:04.Yes, that's right, half the admin staff work here, even though
:12:04. > :12:06.Brussels is about 125 miles away. And here is the council where
:12:06. > :12:16.ministers from EU member states have their meetings.
:12:16. > :12:17.
:12:17. > :12:20.But only in spring and summer. And one of the main things that
:12:20. > :12:26.happens here is translation. In silence, around 200 people wrestle
:12:26. > :12:28.with the EU's languages and agencies.
:12:28. > :12:31.Our primary mission is to translate for decentralised EU agencies
:12:31. > :12:34.located over Europe like the European Chemicals Agency or some
:12:34. > :12:36.are located in England like the European Medicines Agency or the new
:12:36. > :12:46.financial authorities like the European Banking Authority which are
:12:46. > :12:47.
:12:47. > :12:51.located in London. To find out why here, you have to step into history.
:12:51. > :12:54.Back in the 1950s, Luxembourg was a founder member of what would become
:12:54. > :12:57.the EU. And this is where the European Parliament had its meetings
:12:57. > :13:07.in the 1960s and 1970s and until 1981 when the number of MEPs got too
:13:07. > :13:16.
:13:16. > :13:19.they have that meeting in Strasbourg in future. Now, this place is hired
:13:19. > :13:22.out as a conference venue. In the colourful office of the city's
:13:22. > :13:25.mayor, don't go suggesting it would be easier if everything was in
:13:25. > :13:28.Brussels. I can understand people who say we will want to save money
:13:28. > :13:31.and it will cost money and transportation and things like that,
:13:31. > :13:34.but on the other part, we started to create Europe also as a melt melting
:13:34. > :13:36.pot of different origins and different languages. And so
:13:36. > :13:40.passionate are the Luxembourgers, the Government has taken the EU to
:13:40. > :13:50.court over plans to redraw the map of European institutions in a way
:13:50. > :13:54.
:13:54. > :13:56.that might disadvantage them. Now, let's take a look inside one of
:13:56. > :14:06.the buildings I mentioned, the European Court of Justice which is
:14:06. > :14:13.
:14:13. > :14:16.style. We are about to watch a judgement being delivered in the
:14:16. > :14:21.European Court of Justice. This is not the European Court of Human
:14:21. > :14:27.Rights that Tauri backbenchers hate. This is a different organisation in
:14:27. > :14:29.a completely different city doing a completely different thing. This
:14:29. > :14:39.place deals with European Union organisations, countries, and
:14:39. > :14:43.
:14:43. > :14:46.companies who are accused of breaking the EU's rules. -- Tauri So
:14:46. > :14:48.last year for example, they passed judgement on whether airlines should
:14:49. > :14:51.pay compensation if passengers are delayed, whether people from outside
:14:52. > :14:55.the EU are entitled to housing benefit, but most often, they are
:14:55. > :15:03.responding to national courts who have asked for an EU law to be
:15:03. > :15:06.clarified. This particular case has been heard by a panel of 15 judges.
:15:06. > :15:09.Sometimes there are fewer depending on how complicated it is. There is
:15:09. > :15:12.one judge from each member state. They serve terms of six years and
:15:12. > :15:15.they have got a legal background. Sitting on the sidelines a role that
:15:15. > :15:22.British courts don't have, but this one does, an advocate general.
:15:22. > :15:26.every the ruling For preliminary ruling... -- There were eight of
:15:26. > :15:29.them and here is Britain's, Eleanor Sharpston. People reading the of the
:15:29. > :15:32.court find it easier to understand what the court is saying and the
:15:32. > :15:35.reasoning behind the thinking of the court if they have an advocate
:15:35. > :15:42.general's opinion which gives more background and sets the scene,
:15:42. > :15:45.explains what the options were that the court had to consider. And then
:15:45. > :15:48.why you might go one way or the other. Secondly, most Supreme
:15:48. > :15:56.Courts, when they are dealing with a case, have the benefit of judgements
:15:56. > :16:03.that have been given by the courts below. With this court, many of the
:16:03. > :16:06.cases that come to us are cases that come straight here. Critics of the
:16:06. > :16:09.justices who have sat here over the years accuse them of expanding the
:16:09. > :16:16.EU by stealth, even though they are not elected, but talk to them and
:16:16. > :16:20.they say judges at home aren't elected either. Personally, I'm just
:16:20. > :16:25.amazed how much the building looks like a hotel. This is a big place
:16:25. > :16:29.doing a big job. There are about 600 new cases lodged every year and in
:16:29. > :16:33.the league table of which countries end up here often, the UK is near
:16:33. > :16:43.the bottom. Not as squeaky clean as Slovenia, but not accused of being
:16:43. > :16:45.
:16:45. > :16:50.naughty as often as France. Did I mention that this is definitely not
:16:50. > :17:00.the European Court of human rights? Right, back to Belgium to meet some
:17:00. > :17:01.
:17:01. > :17:07.of the people that make the EU work. In amongst the grandeur of the
:17:07. > :17:12.capital of Europe, where can you find our man in Brussels? Well,
:17:12. > :17:15.here. In between a bar and pharmacy. This is home to the UK permanent
:17:15. > :17:19.representation to the EU known in the lingo as UKRep and the man in
:17:19. > :17:29.the middle with the blue folder full of secrets is our UK Rep, our
:17:29. > :17:29.
:17:29. > :17:38.ambassador to the EU. He is the former treasury official, John. We
:17:38. > :17:41.caught up with him. He granted us a rare interview. We are responsible
:17:41. > :17:46.for all discussions and negotiations. When you think of it,
:17:46. > :17:49.we deal with a range of issues which the EU deals with. I started the
:17:49. > :17:52.morning with a morning with the French ambassador and we discussed
:17:52. > :17:54.the agenda and where we are on particular positions and then I'm
:17:54. > :17:58.meeting another couple of ambassadors this evening and my job
:17:58. > :18:05.is to make sure the UK's voice is heard and that UK interests are
:18:05. > :18:10.promoted and we are protected here. And then he was off to the meeting
:18:10. > :18:19.of ambassadors from the other member states. Here they do much of the
:18:19. > :18:23.EU's day-to-day work. On the agenda, Syria, Iran and immigration. UKRep
:18:23. > :18:27.is a team of people around 150 civil servants from across Whitehall. They
:18:27. > :18:32.spend between two and four years here at a time and do the really
:18:32. > :18:36.detailed negotiations. They also help out British guests when they
:18:36. > :18:41.pop over to Brussels. Here, guiding the minister Mark Hoban through the
:18:41. > :18:47.complex world of the European Parliament. Critics of this place
:18:47. > :18:52.say it is full of bureaucrats. The kind of people who will do any deal
:18:52. > :18:56.rather than the deal, the real Number Ten would like to see. Oh,
:18:56. > :19:01.and it turns out there is a bit of glamour after all. UKRep has a very
:19:02. > :19:05.nice residence here in the City's posh ambassador's row. A regular
:19:05. > :19:07.visitor, it is his opposite number from the Republic of Ireland who has
:19:08. > :19:13.been busy lately because Ireland held a rotating six month presidency
:19:14. > :19:16.of the EU earlier this year. That means being an honest broker between
:19:16. > :19:23.the member states and involves chairing hundreds and hundreds of
:19:23. > :19:26.meetings. It means that you have a huge infusion of fresh energy and
:19:26. > :19:29.drive and enthusiasm at the start of every six months and that's very
:19:29. > :19:37.important as well because the pace you work at, you couldn't keep it
:19:37. > :19:40.up. It keeps a lid on Brussels favourite pass time, haggling.
:19:40. > :19:45.so difficult to reach agreement on who should share this group or that
:19:45. > :19:50.group as we have seen recently. Can you imagine having to find chairs
:19:50. > :19:54.for hundreds of individual working groups? People would forget about
:19:54. > :19:57.the business. Top of Ireland's agenda is the promotion of jobs and
:19:57. > :20:01.growth across Europe, but sometimes it means leaving your national
:20:01. > :20:05.interest at the door. For example, the Irish Finance Minister had to
:20:05. > :20:10.broker a deal between a group of countries who want a new tax on
:20:10. > :20:13.financial transactions which Ireland is against. Then there is the softer
:20:13. > :20:19.side, there will be hundreds of Irish cultural events like this
:20:19. > :20:23.reading by the author, John Banville. Each country also installs
:20:23. > :20:27.their own piece of art in the atrium of the council building. It is not
:20:27. > :20:31.just about promoting Ireland, it is about promoting Europe to Ireland.
:20:31. > :20:34.The EU is a crash course in how the EU works both for the national
:20:34. > :20:42.administration, but a crash course for the citizens because they hear
:20:42. > :20:45.more about it. Lately, the presidency has lost some of its
:20:45. > :20:49.lustre, now that the big EU Summits are chaired by the council's
:20:49. > :20:55.permanent president, Herman Van Rompuy. Leaving some to wonder
:20:55. > :20:58.what's the point? It is true you can have some presidencies maybe are not
:20:58. > :21:02.as strong as others or individual chairs are not going to be as good
:21:02. > :21:05.as some others, but you can always be certain at least they will be
:21:05. > :21:11.gone in six months. But there is a permanent and hugely important
:21:11. > :21:14.presence at all levels of the EU and that's the interpreters. The
:21:14. > :21:19.European Union is a bit like a modern day Tower of Babel that looks
:21:19. > :21:22.less nice. The idea is that every one of the half a billion citizens
:21:22. > :21:27.can communicate with the EU in their mother tongue whether they are
:21:27. > :21:30.British, Bulgarian, French or Finnish. There are 24 official
:21:30. > :21:38.languages spoken here and that means there are over 500 different
:21:38. > :21:43.combinations. I speak German, French, English, Italian and Dutch.
:21:43. > :21:53.Greek. English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German.
:21:53. > :21:56.
:21:56. > :21:59.that all? German, French, Norwegian, Danish. No Estonian speakers? Here
:21:59. > :22:03.in the document distribution centre, they turn out millions of words a
:22:03. > :22:09.year. Right, here is a report by the European Parliament into some new
:22:09. > :22:10.banking regulations. That's it in English. Here it is in Bulgarian,
:22:10. > :22:20.Slovakian, Czech, French, Latvian, Danish, Hungarian, Slovenian,
:22:20. > :22:28.
:22:28. > :22:31.Spanish, Finnish, Dutch, Maltese, Swedish and Estonian. But when it
:22:31. > :22:36.comes to the spoken word, most languages are interpreted into
:22:36. > :22:39.English and then reinterpreted into others. Hannah-Lisa does that in
:22:39. > :22:46.Estonian and she gave me a rare glimpse into the secret world of the
:22:46. > :22:49.interpreter's booth. Languages are different. You can see if you look
:22:49. > :22:54.for example into the Spanish booth, the Italian booth, you see a lot of
:22:54. > :22:58.hand waving and there is a lot of action. You look at the Estonian
:22:58. > :23:04.booth and they tend to be calm. When you are there, working, it is
:23:04. > :23:11.intense. And how long a period can you do it for? In one go, 20 minutes
:23:11. > :23:19.and then you get very tired. How do you say eurozone in Estonian? How do
:23:19. > :23:29.you say bank banking union? How do you say United Kingdom? I'm not sure
:23:29. > :23:35.
:23:35. > :23:38.how you say that's all for now in Over the next two years, you will be
:23:38. > :23:40.hearing more about this place because David Cameron wants to
:23:40. > :23:44.renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU and then hold a
:23:44. > :23:47.referendum on it if he wins the next election, before that that we will
:23:47. > :23:55.be voting for the European Parliament and a whole set of
:23:55. > :23:58.commissioners will be sworn in too. From the outside, Brussels can look
:23:58. > :24:01.complicated, sometimes it suits insiders for it to be that way, but