If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium

Our two days in Brussels went by in a blink of an eye.

The RIAS Berlin Commission really put a well thought-out and organized agenda for our group starting with a tour of the Politico Europe building.

Politico Europe started less than three years ago to try and reach a specific audience of politicians, lobbyists and journalists. The print publication is in English catered to the English-speaking people living in Europe.

The station's chief correspondent, David Herszenhorn, talked about the challenges of covering the European Union topics, its terminology and the way institutions work. It can be a complex system with 28 members states being players in the daily role of the European Union (EU).

                

The Politico Europe newsroom is made of of multi-lingual, multi-national employees whom first language is not English. According to Herszenhorn, this provides a more diverse view when covering the news.

One of the top stories it covers is Brexit and what could be the consequences when Britain is out of the EU in March.

The next stop was the European Commission, which promotes the general interest of the EU and its 28 countries. It proposes new legislation, enforces EU laws and manages the budget of all member states. 

One of the main functions of the European Commission is to negotiate daily with other member states on new legislation, which is then adopted by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union.

This was followed by a quick tour of the commission's TV and radio stations within their Brussels' building. 

The other official visit was paid to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters.  We toured the new building, had speakers with top officials in public diplomacy, defense spending and cyber security.


We weren't allowed to take photos of the inside of the building, but here are a couple of photos of the outside and our group. Thank you to the speakers to took the time of their busy schedules to teach us about their roles in the media and political systems!

Our Tuesday ended with three train changes (our first one was cancelled) from Brussels to Cologne, Germany (our next stop). 

As you can only imagine, it was quite an adventure carrying around our luggage around the cobblestone streets of the city and getting on and off trains. We saw beautiful scenery in the countryside with open fields, happy cows and medieval-style architecture.

Two hours after our original arrival time, we finally made it to Cologne, in Germany's state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Our first thought: nourishment.

Some of us indulged in traditional cuisine of sausage, potatoes, Krautsalat (cole slaw) and the local beer Kölsch.

And with that, I will bid you auf wiedersehen because it's 3 a.m. here, and I have to get some sleep if I want to make it through another day of speakers. Stay tuned for the next post! :)