My 8th trip to EU’s Mecca (Brussels) [A 8-a mea călătorie la Mecca UE (Bruxelles)]

My 8th trip to EU’s Mecca (Belgium’s capital, Brussels) – the previous 7 taking place in Jan 2005, Feb 2006, Jun 2006 x 2, Oct 2007, Mar 2008 & May 2008 – started yesterday, as a continuation of my study visit to Rome.

After I was given a tremendous opportunity to get some firsthand insights about the challenges facing immigrants in Italy, as well as how some Romanian citizens live there, I am due to share my experience at this conference.

Not because I am one of the speakers, I honestly hope that this one day conference will be the most interesting EU related event that I have ever taken part in since my Chevening Fellowship at the SEI. It’s not the usual (to some) ‘EU blah-blah-blah’.

It is supposed to be an open discussion about how the free right of movement within the EU is respected, and about the countless problems that occur when people are moving from one Member State to another.

Apart from being a delicate political issue, the freedom of movement has to do with European Political Economy, and the extent to which this freedom is really ‘free’ can show us how ‘integrated’ the 27 Member States are.

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Whether we are eurosceptics or europhorics, I find very hard for anyone to deny the fact that, apart from the EMU, the four fundamental freedoms of the Internal Market are (or should be) the most palpable results of European Integration.
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Among them, the free movement of people is of utmost importance; without it, moving around goods, services and capital would be meaningless. The EU Treaties were written for people not for things, weren’t they?

I know that I am an uncomfortable character (in writing, not in real life I hope :-), and that there are people who may disapprove of several eurosceptical views of mine, as well as despise the fact that I am ‘at war’ with some humanist values promoted in the EU.

On the other hand, others could accuse me of being a ‘EU propagandist’, as long as I am giving speeches on EU topics, and I have been granted some professional opportunities paid by the European Commission (out of ‘EU money’) for the past years.

Well, let my critics say what they please! I believe that there are many necessary good things we could do together, as Europeans. The alternative would be turning Europe back in time, to the first half of the 20th century!

Equally, I think that there are domains that the EU should not interfere with, and I’d like to see many corrections of European policies.

But I don’t believe in anything ever improving by itself. Nor that we could stop the things we don’t like about the EU simply by throwing stones at them. The only chance of seeing our desirable changes taking shape is taking part in the EU.

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[For all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Witty bits from what I learned in the UK (15) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat în UK]

“If someone comes to an exam and writes what I taught him, I will fail him. I don’t want to be told the things I know” – this was, in a nutshell, the philosophy of the British education system, shared by a SEI professor.

Obviously, there’s a continuation – the student is supposed to have read throughly a certain list of books, and then be able to write essays making connections between the things read – but that was the essential part.

Unlike in the Romanian system (originally of French inspiration), students in the UK will not be asked to reproduce memorized data and facts, but to prove their obtained knowledge through a more or less practical exercise.

Writing about something (in order to prove one’s grasp of a certain topic) it’s not the same thing as reproducing it. Therefore, very much different from Romania, British professors are not so obsessed with catching their students cheating.

You simply can’t write an essay and can’t express your view on something you haven’t read before the exam. Even if you had at least a dozen books on your desk during the examination, you couldn’t search for the specific information, nor process it.

Thanks to this philosophy, the higher education system of the UK is one of the things I liked best about this country. Too bad that younger Brits are now in schools that are in an appalling mess after 13 years of New Labour ‘progressive’ reign.

However, I think that British universities will maintain their supremacy in the EU for a long time from now. Be it only because of the English language’s prominence, but also because most French academic institutions are rotten with a bad phisosophy.

If only this sickening political correctness that is creeping into everything ‘sane’ and ‘decent’ in the UK wouldn’t spoil the good things about British universities! Real scientific truths (not those fabricated by ideologies) couldn’t be born in an Orwellian Britain!

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Two years have passed… [Au trecut doi ani…]

…since the great spring we spent together as Chevening Fellows, learning about European Political Economy in one of the most beautiful places where one could be in this time of the year – East Sussex.

And one year has gone since the Alumni Conference of 2009. Are the predictions made then (shown in the fourth picture) still available? Are there many bad news on the way?

Waiting for good news, I’m using this blog post to greet everyone of my ‘fellow Fellows’ + the lovely hosts from the SEI…

…and ask you “how are you coping with the crisis?” – a time of turmoil which appears to be far from a happy ending :-(

Unlike the Fellows of 2009 & 2010, those of us from 2008 (I don’t know about the ones before us) faced no real winter.

I was absolutely amazed with the lovely British weather about which I had heard so many nasty things. I loved it :-)

Sadly, the current global recession threw the entire world into some kind of perpetual winter, and – at least according to British newspapers – many things may not be as pleasant in the UK as we left them.

If anyone has the time, I’d like to know what you are doing, using this opportunity to thank you all for a once-in-a-lifetime experience, hoping we shall meet again someday!

[For all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

[EN] Hail to competing sites / [RO] Salutări siteurilor concurente (5)

[EN] Even if it’s written just (for now or forever?!) in Romanian, I fell I have to draw attention to this blog, at least to show again that I am not afraid of ‘blogging rivals’ :-) [RO] Chiar dacă este scris doar (pentru acum sau întotdeauna?!) în română, simt că trebuie să atrag atenţia către acest blog, cel puţin pentru a arăta din nou că nu mă tem de ‘rivali într-ale blogging-ului’ :-)

[EN] On the contrary, I think that the more alternative views about the UK appear online (two Romanian perspectives in this case), the better it is for anyone trying to understand the Brits. [RO] Dimpotrivă, cred că pe cât apar online mai multe păreri alternative despre UK (două perspective româneşti în acest caz), cu atât este mai bine pentru oricine încearcă să-i înţeleagă pe britanici.

[EN] Then, how could I possibly not mention the blog of my successor as Chevening Fellow from Romania at the SEI, and not wish her all the best? [RO] Apoi, cum se făcea să nu fi menţionat blogul succesoarei mele ca Chevening Fellow din România la SEI?

[EN] The impressive number of posts, and the variety of topics (mostly related to Foreign/European Affairs) amazes me and reminds me of the time I started blogging… as a Chevening Fellow. [RO] Numărul impresionant de postări şi varietatea temelor (cele mai multe legate de Afaceri Internaţionale/Europene) mă uimeşte şi îmi aminteşte de vremea când începeam eu blogging-ul, ca Chevening Fellow.

[EN] For those who can’t understand Romanian, maybe you’ll like the pictures on this blog, as I hope you like those on my site. Anyway, I’m glad to see another photoholic :-) online… [RO] Pentru cei care nu înţelegeţi româna, poate vă vor plăcea fotografiile de pe acest blog, după cum sper că vă plac cele de pe site-ul meu. Oricum, mă bucur să văd alt photoholic :-) online...

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Studentul nostru, stăpânul nostru (9) [Our student, our master]

Chiar dacă nimeni altcineva n-ar fi curios, cred că am cel puţin o potenţială cititoare – care mă va succeda ca Chevening Fellow la SEI – căreia s-ar putea să-i folosească aceste imagini, pentru a-şi face o idee despre cum arată campusul uneia dintre primele 30 de universităţi britanice.

Desigur, este vorba de o universitate din generaţia new wave, cele care au prea puţin de-a face cu celebrele universităţi istorice (Oxford, Cambridge sau cele scoţiene din Edinburgh, Glasgow şi St. Andrews – de la acestea trei din urmă am imagini de postat :-)

În niciun caz nu seamănă din punct de vedere arhitectonic, însă bănuiesc că nici la nivelul fandoselilor – studenţii nu-s atât de upper class, nu există tradiţii de secole, n-am auzit de ritualuri de iniţiere, iar profesorimea este considerată a avea vederi mai liberale faţă de cine predă în universităţi mai tradiţionale.

Cât despre prietenia studenţilor (70% studente!) cu alcoolul, asta nu cred că ar trebui să fie cam aceeaşi în întreg mediul universitar din UK :-)

Oricum, pentru cine este obişnuit cu Universitatea din Bucureşti, cu locaţii răspândite în tot oraşul, majoritatea clădiri vechi, altele – ceva mai noi (dar nu nai noi de anii 1970), această University of Sussex sigur va fi o experienţă interesantă. În prima săptămână, ai impresia că ai fost paraşutat într-un campus uriaş, dar el va deveni tot mai mic pe măsură ce-l înveţi.

După ce te vei dezmetici din primele impresii pozitive – de genul “aici chiar totul este centrat pe confortul studentului” – desigur că vei găsi o gramadă de cusururi... legate, de pildă, de designul ciudat al unor clădiri, calitatea mâncării disponibile în campus.

Totuşi, orice nemulţumire ai avea, ea nu poate fi analizată decât păstrând termenii comparaţiei – dacă ai mai avut de-a face cu universităţi occidentale/britanice, are rost o discuţie; dacă nu – orice comparaţie cu România nu-şi are locul.

Apoi, aflându-te la 7-10 minute (cu autobuzul) de Brighton sau 8 minute (cu trenul, care circulă de vreo 3 ori pe oră în cel mai rău caz, altfel şi de vreo 20, probabil), nu poţi spune că acest campus duce lipsă de ceva.

[Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]

Witty bits from what I learned in the UK (7) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat eu în UK]

Q: Of course, I was by no means a leftist before I came to the UK to study at the SEI as a Chevening Fellow, but now I’ve got even more liberal views on the economy, which were enhanced by the answer to the next question: What good are doing to the people those politicians who fear taking measures that would make thousands of workers jobless?

A: Absolutely none. Most ‘humane considerations’ of the leftists, which keep economically unviable (and often state-owned) companies alive, just not to let people out on the streets (or the pubs :-) are only meant to preserve their electoral chances. They hardly any economic justification.

On the long term, each electoral bribery like this (offering state contracts to a doomed company, just not to lose a certain constituency) backfires, as the younger one is fired, the sooner that person can requalify. When a factory is not closed down at the right time, it will, nevertheless, be forced out of the market by future competition.

Basically, there’s no good choice in choosing not to close down a factory expectedly, thus letting the heartless rules of the free market close it unexpectedly. Of course that I’m in favour of all the necessary social protection measures + workforce reconversion policies...

However, as long as a certain company (or even an entire industry) is on the way to bankruptcy, what can there be achieved by just delaying its fall?!

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Witty bits from what I learned in the UK (1) [Vorbe de duh din ce am învăţat în UK]

I guess it's high time I started a series of blog posts exclusively in English about what I am learning here, hoping that both my colleagues, and our lovely SEI hosts would enjoy reading them. Obviously, it would be pointless to reproduce here lecture notes.

Moreover (to be completely honest to everyone :-), even if I learned by heart all the theories that we're being familiarized with these days, I'll probably forget them sooner or later. But I'll definitely not forget quite a few memorable phrases or ideas.

For the beginning, here's why (put in a nutshell) Communism and planned economy were doomed to fail. As they applied 20th century technologies to a 19th century economy (whose main assets were the hordes of cheap, unskilled labourers), those governments increased productivity up to a point, and even launched the first satellite (1957).

Only that in 20 years from then, much of the technology used to take Yuri Gagarin into space would be available in toy stores, and the Communist regimes simply couldn't make that essential swift from the age of electro-mechanics to the age of electronics.

Basically, many industrial secrets that Soviet spies were stealing from the West remained locked in archives. Information was useless in the absence of people trained to know what to do with it!

An infinity of other (political, economical, social, moral, and so forth) reasons would explain the collapse of Communism, but to put it simply - even to those born after 1989-1991 - here is a brilliant (and unacademic :-) explanation from our Course Director.

His words seem to be as carefully distilled as Scotch whisky: "You find it hard to believe that a Soviet planner could come up with the idea of an iPod." It really is as simple as that...

[For all the episodes of this series, and all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate episoadele din această serie şi toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]

Îndrăgostit de SUA, învăţând despre UE [In love with the USA, learning about the EU]

“Unless you make it easier to sack people, you won't make it easier to hire people” (Jim Rollo, Co-Director of Sussex European Institute) - agăţat de această primă idee care ar putea explica de ce Marea Britanie şi, mai ales, economia ei sunt atât de altfel faţă de restul UE, iată că mă arunc şi eu – până acum doar un observator şi critic al blogosferei – în această mare turbată precum Marea Mânecii...

...mai multe n-ar fi de zis în a patra mea zi pe tărâm britanic, unde deja mă simt acasă din primele 24 de ore.

Nu ştiu ce va ieşi până la urmă din acest MunteanUK (thanks for the cool brand Mr G!), dar parcă n-aş putea să nu tot scriu despre ceea “văd enorm şi simt monstruos” (doar meseria mea e scrisul)...

...într-o ţară care se încăpăţânează să nu semene mai deloc cu România, dar nici cu sora noastră mai mare Franţa, nici cu celelalte surori latine Portugalia şi Spania, ba încă nici cu SUA.

Aşadar, iată mărturia mea din timpul a ceea ce vor fi, cu voia Domnului, 12 săptămâni petrecute în campusul Universităţii din Sussex, studiind European Political Economy, la Sussex European Institute, ca Chevening Fellow.

Foarte pe scurt, aceasta nu înseamnă altceva decât a fi un privilegiat invitat al Foreign and Commonwealth Office, alături de alţi 11 colegi din Croaţia, Estonia, Letonia, Macedonia, Polonia, Slovacia, Ungaria şi Turcia.

[Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la/For all the posts on this blog go to: Contents/Cuprins]