Postcard from Brussels

Postcard from Brussels


Áine Ryan

FORMER Mayo News journalist, Olof Gill has just been appointed as an assistant to Marian Harkin MEP. Here he answers a series of questions put by Áine Ryan about how he ended up living in Brussels and taking on this new role.

Tell me about your educational background and interest in the EU?
Having grown up both in Ireland, on Clare Island off the Mayo coast, and in Sweden, in my mother’s native city of Gothenburg, I suppose you could say I grew up with a varied European experience. So I always had a sense that you can be Irish and Swedish and European all at the same time. My interest in the EU itself originated from an exchange I took part in when I was a teenager, where a number of schools from different European countries participated in a mock European Council session in Belgium.
My undergraduate degree was from UCC, in European Studies and French, including a year spent at the Political Science Institute (‘Sciences-Po’) in Paris. In 2006, I was lucky enough to be awarded a Mitchell Scholarship to the University of Maine in the US, where I spent one year taking classes for a Masters in Government Studies (long-time readers of The Mayo News might remember my column ‘Letter from America’).
At various times during and after my studies, I worked for The Mayo News in Westport, which was a brilliant experience in itself but also gave me important insight into how the EU does (and often doesn’t) reach the local level.

How did you end up in Brussels?
Given that I’d spent so much time learning and writing about the EU, it seemed sensible to see what Brussels - the epicentre of the entire European project - was like. So after my year in America I applied for an internship at the European Commission. After that I took a job working as a journalist for EurActiv, the EU’s leading online media. It was a brilliant time to be working as a reporter, particularly being Irish, because when the first Lisbon Referendum happened, Brussels was a madhouse. It was great fun.

Why did you apply for this new job?
It’s a difficult question, because as a journalist one can feel like a bit of a ‘sell-out’ when you go to the other side (‘the dark side’, one of my reporter friends jokingly called it). Above all, I applied for the job because I have a lot of respect for Marian Harkin as a politican and for the type of changes she’s trying to effect in the west of Ireland. As a journalist, you aim to serve the public good, but you can also do so working in politics. One of my GAA team-mates here in Brussels made the same leap, from being a reporter to working for an MEP, and he said that you essentially move from writing about policy and politics to actually making policy and politics. I’m curious to see what the difference is like.
Also, I think this is a great time to be involved in the European Parliament, because it has grown in importance and stature since Lisbon came into force. It’s the only elected body among the EU institutions and even though there are many things I think could be improved, it serves an undeniably important purpose in the work of the EU.
And last but not least, it should be an exciting, very multicultural and multilingual environment where you meet and work with people from all the 27 EU countries.

How relevant is an MEP’s work to his or her home region?
Well, on the most fundamental level, MEPs  – particularly Irish MEPs who are more rooted in their constituencies than other countries – will respond directly to their constituents’ questions and petitions, and try to use their influence to help.
On the broader level, MEPs try to bring in policies that will genuinely improve the lives of European citizens. In the last few years, for example, the parliament played its part in tightening up emissions restrictions for big European polluters, brought in rules which make it cheaper for people to use their mobile phones when they go abroad, and if you take Marian Harkin herself, she was a key player in making 2011 the European Year of Volunteering, which will hopefully be a massive boon to all kinds of volunteer groups in the West of Ireland next year.

What will you be doing on a daily basis in your new position?
It’s a mix of things: the most important work is to draft and amend legislative proposals, monitor policy developments on the committee the MEP works on and send questions to the European Commission on the work being done there.
Then there’s press monitoring, making sure the MEP gets her message across in both the Brussels and Irish media.
There’s organisational stuff - putting on conferences on a given political issue, making travel arrangements for the monthly trip to Strasbourg, and meeting with different lobbies and NGOs and other ‘policy stakeholders’ to get their input.
And of course, you have to work for the constituency, meaning taking calls, replying to letters and emails, and taking occasional visitor groups around Brussels.

What, in your view, will County Mayo and the general BMW region be like in 10, 50 years time?
In a best-case scenario, the western economy will be more diversified and sustainable, meaning that lots of new start-up companies – using EU funds, where possible – will be employing people in new sectors, such as wave power, online services (so-called ‘e-commerce’), and organic food production, just to give a few examples.
I’ve always thought that Mayo and the West in general could and should do more to create a sustainable year-round tourism industry, to take full economic advantage of our unbelievable natural heritage (I should know, I live in Belgium. It’s possibly the most boring countryside in Europe). This is already happening to some degree with adventure centres, and the brilliant Gaelforce West, but we could be doing a lot more.
And, in relation to that, what is the future of small farming. Difficult to say. I think it’s inevitable that farming subsidies will decline as agriculture takes up a smaller chunk of the overall EU budget. On the other hand, I believe there are great opportunities (and available grants) for small farmers to diversify their practices and make them more sustainable for the future. Having lived abroad, I know what a stellar reputation Irish produce has, and we should take advantage of this to find new niche ways for farmers to make a living. Also, agri-tourism is very popular in other countries and could be developed more in the west.

Does Ireland punch above its weight in the Commission, the Parliament?
Yes, I think so. It was probably more noticeable before the EU enlarged from 15 to 27 member states, but Ireland still does an impressive job for such a small country. Irish politicans and their staff tend to be very canny and have great people skills, which is a massive advantage in a place like Brussels where so many different nationalities and languages collide everyday.
I think there was a strong backlash against Ireland after Lisbon I, but that will soon be a distant memory as new challenges appear on the horizon.

How is your life in Brussels and tell me about those rather wild GAA trips?
Life in Brussels is great fun for the most part, you meet all kinds of people and learn so many things about other countries and ways of life. But then you’d miss home a lot too, as all exiles do. A big thing for me is the lack of water - having grown up on Clare Island with the sea all around me, it’s disconcerting to live in a city that doesn’t even have a river.
I try my best to get home to the island every few months, to make sure I see all my family, friends and neighbours and also to ensure I never lose my place or voice in the community. I read The Mayo News online every Tuesday and I get my weekly Clare Island newsletter on a Wednesday. These are only small things, I suppose, but they mean the world to me and allow me to stay in touch. I’ll call people on the island to hear about the stuff that isn’t printed!
We have a very successful GAA club out here (www.belgiumgaa.com), and being involved with that really made me feel a lot more settled. We had the Clare Island men’s and ladies’ teams over for a tournament in 2009, and the Brussels team made the return journey to the island this March, which was a brilliant occasion.
I’m travelling home for the annual All-Island All-Ireland football tournament this coming weekend (11-12 September), throwing on the Clare Island jersey and hoping to defend our title on Bere Island in Cork.