An Insider's Guide to the EU Politics Europe

Now on BBC News we have Politics Europe.

I'm a reporter for the BBC's Politics Europe programme, so I

get to see a lot of the EU, whether it's livening up the sometimes

The bad news is we've just been thrown out of the Parliament.

Or visiting the shipyards of the newest member of the bloc, Croatia.

Those ferries are heading for Turkmenistan.

And this is an oil tanker that the shipyard will rent out.

Lots of our laws come from it but how much do you really know

Over the next half`hour we will see how Brussels uses its funds to

and park outside their holiday cottages it feels different.

But you drive in five miles and the industry was at a low ebb.

We will find out how they are getting into space as well.

This is creating jobs, high`technology jobs for Europe.

It creates intellectual capital, something Europe has been investing

Plus, who knew there was a right way and a wrong way to hang

The way the stars are always looking up and the feet open.

Welcome to the Politics Europe insider's guide to the EU.

It has been a busy year for the three main institutions that

In May there were elections for the European Parliament.

It saw the extreme left, the extreme right and Eurosceptics

But the only directly elected part of the EU is still dominated

by parties of the centre`right and centre`left.

Jean`Claude Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg, became

the president of the commission, the bit of the EU that dreams up

new legislation and makes sure every country sticks to the rules.

One of which was dominated by the issue of whether that guy from

Still, the entire continent was torn between those who think Europe is

brilliant and those who think it is bust.

But say what you like about the EU, they are pretty good

The gift shop at the European Parliament.

Proof you can put the EU flag on just about anything.

This is the head of protocol at the parliament.

They generally go into wool, not this kind of material.

The rules say the European flag should be flown

in every meeting room and every event and flown correctly.

It has a sense in the way that the stars are always looking upwards.

thank you for showing the European flag but it's the wrong way.

It was originally chosen by the Council of Europe,

a separate body which oversees the European Court of Human Rights.

The stars were only adopted in '85, when a bit

In the present world I think it's important because, as national

states, we are too small compared with these big countries like India

It is instantly recognisable but you can't hum it.

Unlike the EU's official anthem, from Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

The conductor of the Brussels' Philharmonic reveals the mystery.

Beethoven was a genius because of that.

With very essential things, he could create emotion and strong emotion.

Besides that, the chords that accompany

A simplicity found in music of all cultures and all ages.

More universal, more federal, more European, more for everybody,

The motto, united in diversity, or Europe's official day,

May the 9th, if you have your Euro branded calendar to hand.

This is the symbol for the euro, chosen because it looks

like the letter E but mainly because it looks like the Greek

letter that showcases Europe as the cradle of civilisation.

The two lines through the middle represent stability

A lot of those euros are spent on the EU's regional funds,

where Europe tries to help some of the continent's poorest regions.

In the eyes of Brussels, on a par with Sicily or Transylvania, because

the annual income is less than three quarters of the EU average, which

means it qualifies for special regional funding called convergence,

designed to even out economic disparities across Europe.

Here and Wales are the only places in the UK that get it.

In typical EU style, there are loads of other funds

as well but the bulk of regional money goes to regions like this.

In Cornwall's case, half a billion pounds over six years.

This yacht builders was awarded ?190,000.

It had to match the funding with their own money.

This is what it paid for, the mould for making the hull

The boats go to the super rich but they are helping to spread

Cornwall is very pretty around the outside.

In summer, when the Range Rovers come down from London and park

outside their lovely holiday cottages, it feels different.

You drive in five miles and the industry was at a pretty low

Up the road, over ?4 million was spent at this train station.

That paid to build this new loop, which means you can have two trains

passing each other in the station at the same time, which means you can

It helps people to get here, once fields,

The centrepiece is the University of Exeter's environment

But they all seem quite cheap compared to the biggest project,

But the company raised the same amount.

It comes together here at the innovation centre.

Investment in the internet, new workspaces, education and employment

lured this games company, which has gone from one worker last summer to

There isn't really an aspect of the business operation down here

which isn't in some way affected by European Union convergence funding.

Do you go to bed at night thanking the founding fathers of the EU?

I wouldn't say I think about it that deeply.

But it certainly is something that has made it a lot easier

for us to achieve our aims and our goals, or to set off

In return, the EU gets its flag plastered everywhere.

Yes, everywhere, which enrages critics,

who think the UK could spend its own money, thank you very much.

There's a much bigger political question within that.

In terms of, would UK government have made this

investment, so that's probably an MP`politician type answer.

But as a local councillor, I'm not sure that investment would

It has happened through the European Union and it's going to

We will certainly do our best to make the most of that investment.

Home time and Europe funded this place as well.

Brussels insiders admit not every euro

But regional funds aren't going anywhere, they are staying a crucial

But what about the people who work behind the scenes?

To become an EU official, you have to pass a gruelling test.

Here at the EU's very own recruitment agency.

Obviously sometimes we are extremely busy

because there is an enlargement so we have to bring in large numbers.

If you look over the history of the office over the last 12 or

so years, proably the institutions have hired somewhere between 1,500

The numbers applying would be somewhere around 70,000.

But it is less gruelling than it used to be.

Until 2010 there used to be a test of EU knowledge.

This was much criticised and it was one of the things that,

in our modernisation of the selection process, we abolished.

Sometimes those questions were very specialised.

It changed rapidly and you could probably only really

It helped if you were already here, for example.

I think I could do with some preparation.

It's one of those tests where you have to work out

Is there something you really want in your life?

If I was trying to get through this process, what would be

First, I would rephrase it as, if I want to go through the process.

Slightly awkward pep talk over, it's test time.

Facing a test of puzzles, all on the computer.

Like everyone I will do the first part of my mother tongue.

Unlike everyone else, I'm missing out part two because

According to a large`scale study, energy, earthquakes...

Well, all I can say is that was very intense.

You are up against the clock, the questions are really tough

and you are putting quite a lot of pressure on yourself.

I got the results a few days later.

If I get through I'll have another day of face`to`face exercises

and even then I'll only go into a recruitment pool with no

I think they are just being nice because they say that I

wouldn't have passed most of the competitions that they run.

I may have been able to have passed one of the easy ones.

I didn't pass but let's meet some of my fellow Brits who did.

The biggest thing that surprised me on my travels is the number

In the Hague, the ambassador in Switzerland,

They are not saying she is a British person. It is not relieve the

primary. They are not saying she is a British

person. It is not This was useful for Whitehall having you in this

job, as a back channel? There is now back channel. I will talk to anyone

who wants to talk to me. There are a lot of senior people reaching the

end of young EU careers and not enough Joannes, just outing her job

in the IT department. I am properly one of a handful of Brits I have

known over the last 18 months. Mainly my colleagues are from lots

of different European countries. Of course that was part of the appeal

of coming to work here, the mix of people and cultures. I find that

brilliant trusting. That is the story that the statistics tell as

one of the institutions, the one of the institutions, the

commission where Joanne works. The number of UK nationals there has

fallen by 24% over the last seven years which means that now just 4.5%

of the staff are British and the UK makes up 12.5% of the population of

the EU, so as a nation we are seriously underrepresented, a

situation that one EU official told me was a catastrophe. That is kind

of how they see it here at the Foreign Office as well. They

launched a new drive to get people considering careers as EU civil

servants. For anyone tempted to keep the British end up over there, what

is the EU really like as an employer? Do you find yourself going

back home and being an advocate for the EU at dinner parties and at the

pub? Absolutely, 100%. But I'm very happy to. Is this a fun place to

work? It's, we don't have fun you know, we have job satisfaction! What

about the think tanks, where people are paid to talk about the EU? No

need to come `` no need to go to Brussels when there is so much

Europe a short stroll from your office. Here you will find the

Centre for European reform, a think tank. Just around the corner and

above the faith society, you will find another think tank called Open

anti`. They have a team of anti`. They have a team of

multilingual researchers who translate the European press so we

don't have too. Just down the road you will find Business for Britain,

a group which is pro`reform and pro`referendum, and somewhere

amongst all this scaffolding on this main road, another EU campaign group

has sprung up, called British Influence, describing it itself as a

cross`party pro EU membership organisation. Time to head further

afield. In these offices you will find the extremely pro`EU group

Business for Europe, run by Roland rot. This is the office of the very

Eurosceptic newsgroup. Next door to the Calvin Klein shop which is

appropriate, because they think Europe is a load of pants. Then

there are the groups that are no longer with us, like Britain in

Europe, which united big names in support of the euro, or its

antithesis, Business for sterling. Some I did not have the time to

visit, like global Britain, or the European movement. Now to the better

off out campaign, an offshoot of the Freedom Association. Their office is

on that boat. I have heard there is even a bar on board. Just don't make

the same mistake as me. Better off out, how are you better off ``

different than get Britain out? Get Britain out put their case and we

put ours, but we look to emphasise the positive is. Finally, the EU has

its own presence here in the form of this house where you can get lots of

informative literature. We have to point out that this used to be Tory

Central office! Finally we are heading to the final frontier to

explore the work of the European Space Agency. Europe's XO Mars rover

crawls over the surface of the red planet. Except it is really the

Netherlands where you will find the research and technology centre of

the European Space Agency. It is where most of the missions are

planned and built. This one takes off in 2018 and will have robotics

designed by an engineer from Greece. Better not crash, it is costing 1

billion euros plus. What would you say to your fellow Greeks who are

struggling financially to say this is worth investing in? This is

investing in research and development, intellectual capital,

which is something Europe has been investing in. It is creating

knowledge and satisfying the need for research of the human kind.

There are a lot of positive aspects that do bring a return. Missions are

launched in French guy in South America. Astronauts get trained in

Germany. A new lad has just opened up in the UK. In Holland I put on

some fashionable space where to meet one of the senior Brits here, where

they simulate the conditions up there. One of Mark's pet projects is

the Rosetta probe which later this year will land on a comet,

hopefully. There is a huge amount of science to be done, analysing how

the comet is put together. Then we top it off by landing the comet.

Comets are time camp shills, they are stuff left over from Earth and

the solar system when the planets were made and the sun was made,

there is some dust left if you like. Bashar macro time camp shills.

Analysing that, we can learn about how life potentially came to light

in the first place. We can do things together which are very ambitious. I

think it is a great example of human cooperation in that regard. The

badges come off at that point and we are sitting in a control room

waiting for the results to come back from one of our missions, we are all

European, it is great. There are no European flags, because the agency

is independent. It is funded and run by its 20 member states which

confusingly include Canada. The United Kingdom is the fourth largest

contributor behind France, Germany and Italy. Spending about ?250

million last year. A few years ago we upped our contributions, making

the UK lots of friends around here. Each member pays a basic

subscription based on their national income and the more you pay in, the

more work gets sent your country's way. Member states then pick and

choose which missions to invest in. Some nations stains have specific

launchers and they will invest more in launchers than other areas.

sensors, in other things. Having said it is not part of the European

Union, the equivalent of the GPS called

Galileo. The Lisbon Treaty also gave Brussels the power to have its own

space policy for the first time. And prepare for Britain to go space mad

with the first British astronaut to head into the orbit on a European

mission. That is all we have time for. How do you say Eurozone crisis

in Estonian? Visiting all the important bits of the EU. The

president of the council sits there and then the leaders like Angela

Merkel and David Cameron sit around this table, and the negotiations

start. And getting my hands on European history. The Treaty of Rome

signed in 1957 by the six original member states. It sets out the

principle of a common market and ever closer union between the

peoples of Europe. I have learned to big lessons. Nothing ever stand

still when it comes to the EU, and everything is a product of constant

negotiation. Hopefully after our journey together, you feel like an

insider too. It may not be a statistic you want

to hear in August but it may be the first months in around eight or nine

when we see temperatures falling at