An Insider's Guide to the EU Politics Europe

thing I have always tried to ensure is there is a pen on the table that

works. Ah, Brussels.

We are going to be spending a lot of time here because it is where most

of the power lies in the EU and three institutions are more powerful

than the rest. First of all, let's visit the home

home to the commission. The people that work in this

building see themselves as the guardians of the European ideal. The

keepers of the EU flame. All the power lies on the 13th floor. So

they are not superstitious. The reason the 13th floor is

important is because the commission is the only part of the EU that's

got the power to bring forward new legislation. Up here, you will find

the president and his commissioners, so that's one from each member

state, and each is responsible for a different policy area. Every

Wednesday, they meet in there. The president is elected by national

leaders and he is serving his second four-year term. His commissioners

are selected by the member States and approved by the European

Parliament and Connie Hedegaard is one of them.

She is Danish and responsible for policies on climate change. When we

caught up with her, she was finalising new pollution standards

for cars and vans. Is this a typical day? There is not

such a thing as one typical day, but it is typical that we are not idle,

sitting in the offices, not knowing what to do.

As she meets and greets the great and good, she is surrounded by her

political advisers. The commission has been accused of

being overly powerful, but the system has been reformed to make it

appear more, well, more open. Do you feel that you have got a lot

of power? Yes, because it is our job to present the proposals. What is

sometimes overlooked, we don't have total powers. I can present this

cars proposal, but it will not be law in Europe until the Governments

and the European Parliament basically have nodded to this.

All that is supported by 30,000 civil servants, recruited from a

multi-lingual process. Sometimes the commission is enforcing existing

rules. For example, one case which involve

the import and export of step ladders! See, it is not all high

politics around here, you know! Now, come with me to the European

survived survived your home equivalent of

PMQs and you have arrived for a the European Council. They happen at

heads of Government level four times a year and they are the only part of

the EU where the individual countries are represented. The

council also meets at ministerial level, so sometimes it is finance or

agriculture or energy ministers on the red carpet instead.

And this is where the meetings happen. They are chaired by the

president of the council, Herman Van Rompuy, who sits there. Then the

leaders like Angela Merkel and David Cameron sit round this table and the

negotiations start. But having said that, a lot of the

work has been done in advance by diplomats.

What was that? Advisers aren't always allowed in

the room, but famously during negotiations over the treaty, John

Major's right-hand man hid under the table and passed him notes. Here.

Ah, thank you very much. It says lots of decisions here have

to be unanimous, but some are taken by qualified majority voting and

that's where each country gets a set number of votes based on their

population size and it is more complicated than getting 50% of

them, but that system is going to change in 2014.

In the future, the meetings will happen in this new building that's

going up next door where the president will also have a swanky

office. When the leaders are finished

talking, they put aside their differences for the family photo.

Brussels insiders measure the length of a council meeting by the number

of shirts that were needed, a one shirter was short. A four shirter

was not. And when the famously gruelling

meetings are over, all that's left is to defend your decisions to the

Elections for it will be held across This place is enormous. It covers

500,000 square meters. The most exciting part is the hemicycle.

We will not be seeing it because it is closed after enormous cracks

appeared in the ceiling. So come with me on a search for

alternative interesting things in hole where official papers are

delivered, which means there are 754 of these. They are organised

alphabetically within countries. The only thing there is more of is

art. The walls of this place are covered in it.

The biggest piece is this one. It is by a Belgium sculptor and it is

called Confluences. It is a sort of hymn to European

togetherness in stainless steel and it runs through the middle of the

building. Then there is the fact that there is

weird stuff just dotted around over the place, like this grand piano

donated by the people of Estonia to mark their country's 90th

anniversary. How does the Estonian National

buildings costs about a tenth of one percent of the total EU budget, so

around 190 million euros a year. It is a very open place. They will let

you film everywhere and the only thing off limits are the bars and

restaurants. I can tell you that one of them is

called the Mickey Mouse bar on account of the fact that the chairs

in it are reminiscent of a certain Disney character! Sadly, they have

got rid of most of them now and these are museum pieces.

Talking of museums, there is one here called the Parliamentarian. It

is amazingly hi-tech. A no trip to a tourist attraction

would be complete without a visit to the gift shop. Here are some of the

things you can pick up, but I can think of a few people who would

institutions are laid out in a sacred texts - the treaties. Well,

copies of them, the real ones are in Rome.

Philip Evans prepares them for signing and looks after them in the

climate controlled chambre fort, the strong room. First surprise - they

don't come in books, but big boxes. This is the Croatian succession

have here is treaty and its annexes and primary law and the final Act.

All this here is Croatian. A treaty has to be agreed by every

Prime Minister and president through a process called the

inter-governmental conference. Once they are drafted, they go

Then a treaty has to be ratified by each member state. Some put it to a

all. The Treaty of Rome signed in 1957 by

the six original member states. It sets out the idea of a Common Market

and the principle of ever closer union for the peoples of Europe.

The UK wouldn't join until much later.

This one, which weighs a tonne, by the way, is what Britain signed to

join the European Community in 1973. And here is the Maastricht Treaty

signed in 1992, which transformed the plain old European Community

into the fully fledge European Union.

Now, each new treaty amends the original Treaty of Rome, so if you

EU operates today, you need to read this one, the Treaty of Lisbon

signed in 2007. But I'm told some governments prefer getting their

treaties in this format now. The treaties are where the EU takes

its great leaps forward, or backwards depending on your point of

view. Look closely and you will notice our

friend Philip who organises the signing ceremonies, giving him a

ring side seat to history. One thing I have tried to do is

ensure there is a pen on the table that actually works. His parents get

used more than you might think. The EU signs 100 other types of official

As a reporter for the BBC's Politics Europe programme, I have spent the

last year exploring Brussels, finding out how it works and trying

it to get behind the jargon so you can feel like an insider too.

Believe it or not, hardened Europhiles sometimes want to escape

this city. And I fancy a change of scene too.

Every month, what feels like the whole of the EU heads here to

Strasbourg, where the Parliament has its official sittings.

It is a source of great pride for the French, and immense annoyance

for MEPs and their staff who hate trekking here.

But the EU has a third great institutional city, Luxembourg. I

better pack a map for this one! The European Court of Justice is

here. That's the European Investment Bank.

Those are the offices of the European Parliament.

Yes, that's right, half the admin staff work here, even though

Brussels is about 125 miles away. And here is the council where

ministers from EU member states have their meetings.

But only in spring and summer. And one of the main things that

happens here is translation. In silence, around 200 people wrestle

with the EU's languages and agencies.

Our primary mission is to translate for decentralised EU agencies

located over Europe like the European Chemicals Agency or some

are located in England like the European Medicines Agency or the new

financial authorities like the European Banking Authority which are

located in London. To find out why here, you have to step into history.

Back in the 1950s, Luxembourg was a founder member of what would become

the EU. And this is where the European Parliament had its meetings

in the 1960s and 1970s and until 1981 when the number of MEPs got too

they have that meeting in Strasbourg in future. Now, this place is hired

out as a conference venue. In the colourful office of the city's

mayor, don't go suggesting it would be easier if everything was in

Brussels. I can understand people who say we will want to save money

and it will cost money and transportation and things like that,

but on the other part, we started to create Europe also as a melt melting

pot of different origins and different languages. And so

passionate are the Luxembourgers, the Government has taken the EU to

court over plans to redraw the map of European institutions in a way

that might disadvantage them. Now, let's take a look inside one of

the buildings I mentioned, the European Court of Justice which is

style. We are about to watch a judgement being delivered in the

European Court of Justice. This is not the European Court of Human

Rights that Tauri backbenchers hate. This is a different organisation in

a completely different city doing a completely different thing. This

place deals with European Union organisations, countries, and

companies who are accused of breaking the EU's rules. -- Tauri So

last year for example, they passed judgement on whether airlines should

pay compensation if passengers are delayed, whether people from outside

the EU are entitled to housing benefit, but most often, they are

responding to national courts who have asked for an EU law to be

clarified. This particular case has been heard by a panel of 15 judges.

Sometimes there are fewer depending on how complicated it is. There is

one judge from each member state. They serve terms of six years and

they have got a legal background. Sitting on the sidelines a role that

British courts don't have, but this one does, an advocate general.

every the ruling For preliminary ruling... -- There were eight of

them and here is Britain's, Eleanor Sharpston. People reading the of the

court find it easier to understand what the court is saying and the

reasoning behind the thinking of the court if they have an advocate

general's opinion which gives more background and sets the scene,

explains what the options were that the court had to consider. And then

why you might go one way or the other. Secondly, most Supreme

Courts, when they are dealing with a case, have the benefit of judgements

that have been given by the courts below. With this court, many of the

cases that come to us are cases that come straight here. Critics of the

justices who have sat here over the years accuse them of expanding the

EU by stealth, even though they are not elected, but talk to them and

they say judges at home aren't elected either. Personally, I'm just

amazed how much the building looks like a hotel. This is a big place

doing a big job. There are about 600 new cases lodged every year and in

the league table of which countries end up here often, the UK is near

the bottom. Not as squeaky clean as Slovenia, but not accused of being

naughty as often as France. Did I mention that this is definitely not

the European Court of human rights? Right, back to Belgium to meet some

of the people that make the EU work. In amongst the grandeur of the

capital of Europe, where can you find our man in Brussels? Well,

here. In between a bar and pharmacy. This is home to the UK permanent

representation to the EU known in the lingo as UKRep and the man in

the middle with the blue folder full of secrets is our UK Rep, our

ambassador to the EU. He is the former treasury official, John. We

caught up with him. He granted us a rare interview. We are responsible

for all discussions and negotiations. When you think of it,

we deal with a range of issues which the EU deals with. I started the

morning with a morning with the French ambassador and we discussed

the agenda and where we are on particular positions and then I'm

meeting another couple of ambassadors this evening and my job

is to make sure the UK's voice is heard and that UK interests are

promoted and we are protected here. And then he was off to the meeting

of ambassadors from the other member states. Here they do much of the

EU's day-to-day work. On the agenda, Syria, Iran and immigration. UKRep

is a team of people around 150 civil servants from across Whitehall. They

spend between two and four years here at a time and do the really

detailed negotiations. They also help out British guests when they

pop over to Brussels. Here, guiding the minister Mark Hoban through the

complex world of the European Parliament. Critics of this place

say it is full of bureaucrats. The kind of people who will do any deal

rather than the deal, the real Number Ten would like to see. Oh,

and it turns out there is a bit of glamour after all. UKRep has a very

nice residence here in the City's posh ambassador's row. A regular

visitor, it is his opposite number from the Republic of Ireland who has

been busy lately because Ireland held a rotating six month presidency

of the EU earlier this year. That means being an honest broker between

the member states and involves chairing hundreds and hundreds of

meetings. It means that you have a huge infusion of fresh energy and

drive and enthusiasm at the start of every six months and that's very

important as well because the pace you work at, you couldn't keep it

up. It keeps a lid on Brussels favourite pass time, haggling.

so difficult to reach agreement on who should share this group or that

group as we have seen recently. Can you imagine having to find chairs

for hundreds of individual working groups? People would forget about

the business. Top of Ireland's agenda is the promotion of jobs and

growth across Europe, but sometimes it means leaving your national

interest at the door. For example, the Irish Finance Minister had to

broker a deal between a group of countries who want a new tax on

financial transactions which Ireland is against. Then there is the softer

side, there will be hundreds of Irish cultural events like this

reading by the author, John Banville. Each country also installs

their own piece of art in the atrium of the council building. It is not

just about promoting Ireland, it is about promoting Europe to Ireland.

The EU is a crash course in how the EU works both for the national

administration, but a crash course for the citizens because they hear

more about it. Lately, the presidency has lost some of its

lustre, now that the big EU Summits are chaired by the council's

permanent president, Herman Van Rompuy. Leaving some to wonder

what's the point? It is true you can have some presidencies maybe are not

as strong as others or individual chairs are not going to be as good

as some others, but you can always be certain at least they will be

gone in six months. But there is a permanent and hugely important

presence at all levels of the EU and that's the interpreters. The

European Union is a bit like a modern day Tower of Babel that looks

less nice. The idea is that every one of the half a billion citizens

can communicate with the EU in their mother tongue whether they are

British, Bulgarian, French or Finnish. There are 24 official

languages spoken here and that means there are over 500 different

combinations. I speak German, French, English, Italian and Dutch.

Greek. English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German.

that all? German, French, Norwegian, Danish. No Estonian speakers? Here

in the document distribution centre, they turn out millions of words a

year. Right, here is a report by the European Parliament into some new

banking regulations. That's it in English. Here it is in Bulgarian,

Slovakian, Czech, French, Latvian, Danish, Hungarian, Slovenian,

Spanish, Finnish, Dutch, Maltese, Swedish and Estonian. But when it

comes to the spoken word, most languages are interpreted into

English and then reinterpreted into others. Hannah-Lisa does that in

Estonian and she gave me a rare glimpse into the secret world of the

interpreter's booth. Languages are different. You can see if you look

for example into the Spanish booth, the Italian booth, you see a lot of

hand waving and there is a lot of action. You look at the Estonian

booth and they tend to be calm. When you are there, working, it is

intense. And how long a period can you do it for? In one go, 20 minutes

and then you get very tired. How do you say eurozone in Estonian? How do

you say bank banking union? How do you say United Kingdom? I'm not sure

how you say that's all for now in Over the next two years, you will be

hearing more about this place because David Cameron wants to

renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU and then hold a

referendum on it if he wins the next election, before that that we will

be voting for the European Parliament and a whole set of

commissioners will be sworn in too. From the outside, Brussels can look

complicated, sometimes it suits insiders for it to be that way, but