13.10

And that’s all folks! A fascinating debate today, with some really frank and no-nonsense points being made about a difficult subject.

We’ll be continuing our focus on youth unemployment for the rest of the week, including publishing a poll conducted with Gallup on the attitudes of young people themselves. So, stay tuned for more!

13.01

Péter Halácsy says that the EU’s research investment programme, the Framework Programmes 7 (FP7), is the worst programme ever because it wastes money and keeps the best people at universities instead of in the private sector.

He is asked by a member of the audience how he would change FP7, and he responds:

I used to be a university professor. I did a PhD, and I used FP6 money. I think the biggest problem is that we don’t define [what is] successful research. So, we invest money, but we don’t know if we get back a result.

12.52

An impassioned plea from a member of the audience: “To all the educators, ministers, and so on in the room: Please, please, please teach students the basic skills! The rest they will find on Google.”

12.47

Minister Quinn:

It seems paradoxical that Europe has a declining, aging population as well as high youth unemployment. It’s a recipe for a social crisis… We have to inflate our way back into growth, in the same way the Federal Reserve is engaging in quantitative easing in the US.

12.45

A couple of video questions from Debating Europe. One question about how we can stop unpaid internships, and another asking: “How can we involve more young people in designing schemes like the ‘Youth Guarantee’?”

12.37

Péter “HP” Halácsy, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Prezi, is asked what sort of skills he looks for when he’s hiring people.

He says: “Reading, writing, maths and programming.”

He also has a message for universities:

Please don’t teach ‘useful’ knowledge. You just don’t know what is useful. Technology is changing so fast, that I don’t know what kind of technology we will have tomorrow. Fundamental skills is what we need.

12.33

Ruairí Quinn, Irish Minister for Education and Skills, has the floor again. He’s says:

Young people are being tricked out of an education, doing things like ‘media studies’. These are just non-jobs. They’re a deception to the parents, who are having to carry the young people, and they’re a deception to the young people themselves. There is a certain sense of betrayal of this cohort of young people.

12.24

Stefano Scarpetta, Deputy Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is now speaking.

He says, more worrying than youth unemployment, is “idleness”. People who aren’t Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETs).

And what is the answer to this problem? Scarpetta argues: “Economic growth. Everything need to be done at the macroeconomic level to promote economic growth.”

12.20

He says: “I like to convince people not to go to university. Don’t get a Masters. Instead start making things, so people can buy them.”

12.20

Péter “HP” Halácsy, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Prezi, an internet start-up, is asked: “How do you get young people back into jobs?”

A simple answer: “We hire them.”

12.18

Now Carmen Costea, Vice Rector of International Relations at Spiru Haret University, Bucharest, is outlining some of the ways her university is working to try and make the skills learned by students more practical and applicable in the labour market.

12.13

Talking about internships and traineeships, Minister Quinn says:

It’s not exploitation if you’re being lowly paid but highly trained… And you learn things like getting up on time, being punctual, understanding how to work in groups, and being socialised… Those kind of values, which might not be very fashionable, are about becoming a young adult… It’s not exploitation. It’s about training on the job.

12.10

Ruairí Quinn, Irish Minister for Education and Skills, is now speaking. He warns that:

We have a certain sense of entitlement in our society. A growing cohert of people, historically, it used to be the dispossessed or alienated working class people, and now there’s an emerging class of young unemployed people, who likewise see no connection between income and work.

12.05

The final session is beginning now! This will be looking at some practical solutions: “Getting young people into jobs – what works best?”

11.55

If you want to see some facts and figures about youth unemployment in Europe, you can see our infographic here.

11.45

And that’s it for this session! The next session, with Ruairí Quinn, Irish Minister for Education and Skills, should be beginning at 12:00 CET.

11.44

Koos Richelle, European Commission Director General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, says that it is “blatant nonsense” that the crisis was caused by Europe. He says the crisis began in the financial sector, and if you believe youth unemployment is a reason for increased euroscepticism, then you need to go “back to school.”

11.41

The Romanian Minister of Labour is answering this. She says “Young people need to have free access in the labour market, without any kind of barriers. Only this way can we have a success story.”

Access of Romania and Bulgaria to the labour market in Europe is, of course, a fiercely controversial question at the moment.

11.39

Another video question from one of our users. This one comes from Xavier, who asks about the relationship between euroscepticism and youth unemployment.

11.32

A question from the audience saying:

The reality is that we have highly-qualified people, but we also are creating jobs that do not need high qualifications… 50% of the jobs created in Europe between 2000-2008, the ‘boom years’, needed less skills than driving your car to work.

11.27

He also says that governments must give up the “obsession” with producing the next Silicon Valley. He says that this model does not give back to society, and California still has terrible unemployment and social problems. “We should aim for sustainability, not domination, which is the failed American model.”

11.26

Like many of the previous speakers, Tsigos says: “the culture of failure is missing from European education.” However, he also says we need to produce more “team players… We are educating champions, not team players.”

11.24

Now Dimitris Tsigos, President of the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs (YES), is now speaking. He says: “The truth is that Europe is old, and behaves like a very old person: slow moving and very conservative.”

11.17

Olivier Küttel is making an interesting point:

“It isn’t the case that when you go for vocational training you are middle-skilled and when you go to university you are highly-skilled. Vocational training should not be seen as second-class training. It’s probably the most valuable education you can have, and it’s much more valuable than anything you can learn in a university.”

11.13

A question from the moderator: “Labour markets are very much a prerogative of the national governments. Do you think the EU should have a greater role here?”

And a fairly straightforward response from Richelle: “Well, I can dream on, but we have the treaty and the treaty says it is the prerogative of the member states.”

11.10

Richelle also brings up the Commission’s soon-to-be-proposed “Quality Framework for Traineeships”. He says too many interns in Europe are being exploited: “They learn nothing, and they earn nothing. They are simply cheap labour.”

11.07

Koos Richelle, European Commission Director General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion is now speaking.

11.06

Olivier Küttel, head of EU affairs for the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne now has the floor. Switzerland has an unemployment rate of 3% (and, even more remarkably, a youth unemployment rate of 3%).

How do they do it? Küttel argues, controversially, that “the higher the figure of people going to university, the higher your unemployment rate will be later on.” In Switzerland, 80% of people opt for vocational training instead of going to university.

10.55

Câmpeanu responds:

There hasn’t been a strong enough link between the curricula and the demand in the labour market, which has driven Europe to have an acute lack of technical workers. Romania was known in the 1990s as a country with good qualifications in the technical field, yet now we are starting to have a very large shortage of technical labour.

10.52

A question from the audience for the Romanian Minister of Labour: “How can you involve universities in your programme, both teaching staff and students, and potentially even alumni who have already graduated?”

10.50

Minister Câmpeanu also says the Romanian government intends to ensure a “decent working environment for trainees, by setting minimum standards for a quality traineeship.”

This is exactly the topic we discussed yesterday in our debate on internships in Europe.

10.48

Câmpeanu is outlining some of the plans the Romanian government has for cutting youth unemployment. These include many of the measures brought up by EU Education Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, such as better vocational counselling and more professional training and informal training.

10.44

And the second session is beginning! Mariana Câmpeanu, the Romanian Minister of Labour, is now speaking.

10.39

Apologies, we’re running a bit behind today because of the bad traffic in Brussels, but should be starting in the next few minutes!

10.22

And that’s all for this session! We’ll be starting up again at 10:30 CET, with a panel including Mariana Câmpeanu, Romanian Minister for Labour and Koos Richelle, European Commission Director General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

10.19

One final point from Vandenbroucke: “People do not choose technical subjects because they do not see the link between engineering and the big societal issues out there like climate change… Why did I choose economics instead of engineering? Because, when I was 17, I wanted to work in issues that affect society and politics. Maybe I was wrong.”

This coming from a man who is a former Belgian Minister for Employment and Pensions. What could he have achieved if he’d chosen engineering?

10.16

Frank Vandenbroucke, Former Belgian Minister for Employment and Pensions, answers by saying: “We have a problem in organising counselling and orientation for young people… It’s about helping young people to discover themselves: both their talents AND their passions, and how those relate to the outside.”

But he also says: “I do think passion is very important. I would tell people to follow their passion. But, in order to broaden the scope in which passions can be applied, we must introduce technology at an earlier age.”

10.14

A really good question from the audience:

I never felt there was a focus in the education system on what you were good at, but rather doing ‘what you really enjoyed’. Do you believe there needs to be a cultural shift to focus on your practical strengths, rather than your passions?

10.11

A brilliantly sardonic question from a young person in the audience: “Thank you for organising this debate about how to save us… We are talking about a lost generation, but we’ve been talking about a ‘lost generation’ since the 1980s. Aren’t the ‘lost generation’ now in their 40s and 50s?”

10.04

A very good question from the audience: “What can be done now about youth unemployment? Not in the long-term.”

Frank Vandenbroucke says he thinks that the broader economic situation has to improve. He says we need a “more expansionary approach in the North of Europe, to allow the South to reform and restructure.”

In other words: he argues that we need to rethink ‘austerity’ as a solution to the crisis.

10.02

Commissioner Vassiliou says that young people need counselling.

She doesn’t mean therapy (although if things get much worse then that might help), she means vocational counselling. Vassiliou argues that too many young people are choosing to study subjects in the social sciences, and not enough are studying technical subjects. Vocational counselling, before young people embark on studies in higher education, could help inform them about what sort of skills are needed in the labour market.

09.57

Andrea Gerosa, from ThinkYoung, says it’s important to also recognise the global context. When you look at young people in Africa, Latin America, Asia, etc., he says that they are often “working their &*$@’s off… We should not be too nice to young people. Otherwise we get lazy.”

09.54

A video question asking how young people can be better exposed to the business environment at an earlier age.

Commissioner Vassiliou says that entrepreneurial education is absolutely vital, and in the long-term, there needs to be more of an acceptance of “failure” when starting a company, as it can take several attempts.

Karen Coleman asks what can be done now, not just in the long-term, and Vassiliou says that there are already schemes linking young people with businesses across Europe, and that it is important to focus also on “lifelong learning”.

09.49

And it’s time to take some of your video questions to the panel, to see how they react.

09.46

Frank Vandenbroucke, Former Belgian Minister for Employment and Pensions, is now speaking. He says the wider context of European austerity has to be considered when talking about youth unemployment.

Reforms, he says, are expensive: “If you need to reform, yes you can reform with tighter budgets. But it’s rather easier to push through reform with a large budget.”

09.42

The European Council, in February, earmarked €6 billion for a new Youth Employment Initiative. Agnes Roman says this is nowhere near enough money. It is ‘a drop in the ocean’ – but at least it puts the issue on the political agenda.

09.40

Agnes Roman, Education Advisor at the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), says that, if you want to successfully integrate young people into the labour market, you need to first recognise the heterogeneity of “young people”. They should not be lumped together into one group. There are young people who have left school with few qualifications, young graduates who have a skills-mismatch, young people with a difficult background or disabilities, etc., etc.

Each of these groups needs a different approach.

09.36

Giles Merritt makes an excellent point: the crisis might get better in five years. However, that could still leave us with young people who have never had a job, and never will have a job, because they have spent so long unemployed. How can we avoid leaving a generation of young people on the ‘scrap heap’?

09.33

He seems fairly optimistic about the future. He says that national governments are currently focused a lot on young people, but he’s worried that “once the crisis is over”, young people and entrepreneurship will again drop off the agenda. He says: “In five years, when the crisis is passed and unemployment is solved, will policy makers still care about young people?”

Are we getting ahead of ourselves?

09.30

Now Andrea Gerosa, a young entrepreneur and founder of ThinkYoung, is speaking. He’s 30 years old, and says he was “lucky to have left Italy years before the crisis started”.

09.28

Vassiliou says: “We need investment. I am trying to encourage countries not to cut their education budgets.”

09.27

Vassiliou is outlining the various steps the Commission wants to take in order to encourage improvement in various education systems in Europe, so that they can better provide the skills young people need to find jobs. It’s important to point out, though, that education remains largely the competence of the individual member state governments.

09.22

Vassiliou says that the paradox of the crisis is the so-called “skills mismatch”. She says “We have about 2 million unfilled jobs, which cannot be filled because we can’t find the necessary skills to fill these jobs [and education] does not provide them with the skills necessary for them to find work or stay in work.”

09.19

And Commissioner Vassiliou is now speaking. She says that youth unemployment is “the biggest challenge we are facing [in Europe]“.

09.18

Giles Merritt is now introducing a poll that we conducted with our partner Gallup, asking young people how they felt about the future. We’ll be publishing the report later this week, but the results make for sobering reading (92% of young people in Italy feel very pessimistic about the possibility of finding a secure job in future).

09.15

And we’re off! Giles Merritt, Secretary General of Friends of Europe, is just introducing himself and his co-moderator, Karen Coleman, Broadcast Journalist and Columnist for the Irish Independent.

The traffic is apparently horrible in Brussels today, and so Commissioner Vassiliou (EU Commissioner for Education) has just made it to the panel now.

09.07

Looks like we’re running a bit late, but should be starting soon!

09.00

The event is due to begin at 9am CET, with a panel discussion on the “Skills shortage in a dwindling EU workforce.” One of the most perverse things about the current crisis is that, although unemployment is sky-high, there are certain sectors (such as the ICT sector) that are unable to find enough skilled manpower. Is the education system failing our young people? We’ll be kicking things off with a panel discussion on this topic (with Androulla Vassiliou, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism & Youth).

13.08

And that’s all folks! Thanks for following the debate, and we’ll be posting some follow-up interviews soon!

13.06

John F. Ryan is now talking about the impact of the economic crisis on vaccination programmes in Europe. He highlights an instance when supplies in Greece were running out, and an emergency donation from Norway was arranged to meet demand.

Ryan also says that, though prevention can indeed have benefits in the short-term, the results always seem to be “just beyond the next election”.

13.00

The next video contribution is from Dr Marc Sprenger, Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). He says this has been the longest influenza season since the ECDC was established in 2005.

He also says that vaccination is much more effective than the old “coughing into your elbow” technique, and he is concerned that so few healthcare professionals advocate vaccination to their patients (and to themselves).

12.56

Now a couple of video contributions to the debate, first from Roberto Bertollini, Chief Scientist and WHO Representative to the European Union. He points out that only 3% of healthcare budgets are currently dedicated to prevention, and he argues that it’s not true that prevention only produces results in “decades”. In fact, he believes it’s the only way to ensure that healthcare systems are sustainable in Europe.

12.50

The panel is now suggesting that hospital directors and policy-makers set a positive public example by having themselves vaccinated live on the internet.

Debating Europe would be happy to livestream such an event. And the Debating Europe commenter who submits the best question to us on this issue will get to administer the injection.

12.43

John F. Ryan is speaking again, saying that the Commission will soon be publishing a report that identifies which countries are going “backwards” in terms of vaccinations. He hopes this will be a “peer-pressure” report, that will embarrass Health Ministers in the countries that are falling behind, and encourage them to redouble their efforts.

12.41

Another comment from the audience, arguing that we are now “paying the price” of the “anti-vaccination” scares several years ago, including inaccurate reporting by national media.

12.39

Some questions from the audience now, including a commenter reminding the panel that there are other areas (including encouraging physical activity through walking and cycling) that could also have a positive impact on public health in Europe.

12.36

Giles Merritt is speaking again, asking why more vaccinations aren’t being conducted when the individual cost of a vaccination is “about the price of a coffee”.

Question for debate: Would the economy of Europe benefit more from all 500 million citizens being offered free vaccinations, or through a simultaneous caffeine boost through subsidised coffee?

12.32

Smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1979, following vaccination campaigns in the 19th and 20th centuries. This year, 2013, might be the first year with less than 100 cases of Polio reported globally, and it could eventually follow smallpox into the history books.

However, the increase in the number of vaccinations being carried out has recently halted, and there have even been some decreases in certain countries.

12.28

The panel is arguing that the economic impact of sickness can be huge, both in terms of the increased pressure on the health system, but also in terms of “days lost” in the economy.

12.26

Do too many people in Europe think of communicable disease as being a problem of the past? With the ready availability of antibiotics, is there a feeling that the “bad old days” (when, for example, an influenza pandemic in 1918 killed between 3-5 percent of the world’s population) are now over?

12.19

Why do people in Europe seem so reluctant to have themselves and their children vaccinated? Is it because the benefit is of vaccination is “invisible” compared to exercise and healthy diets? Is there a way to make vaccination “fun” and a pleasant experience? And is there enough public awareness that they are needed?

12.16

The UK recently saw an outbreak of the measles virus in Wales, which affected over 1000 people. As many as 50’000 people in Wales may remain unvaccinated despite a drive from the British government, possibly due to a public health scare caused by research (now discredited) linking the MMR vaccine to autism in children.

12.10

John F. Ryan, acting Director of Public Health at the European Commission, now has the floor. You can also read Ryan’s comments from our recent post asking how we can encourage healthier lifestyles in Europe.

12.09

And here we go! The debate has begun, and Giles Merritt, the Secretary General of Friends of Europe, is introducing the discussion. He wonders why the takeup of preventive vaccination is so low in Europe.

15.35

Viviane Reding finishes her remarks by saying she will “continue fighting for a political Europe, and those who want a stronger Europe are those who will ultimately win the day.”

And, that’s all folks! We’re be following up this liveblog next week with some further discussion and debate about some of the tricky issues raised, so stay tuned for more.

15.30

Reding is now giving her closing remarks. She says that, next week, the Commission will be revealing 12 proposals to improve the lives of European citizens.

She also says that there is much confusion over whether the EU or national governments have competency in different policy areas. Apparently, people write regularly to Viviane Reding asking her for help in all sorts of areas – including divorces. Viviane Reding as a pan-European agony aunt?

She also makes another point: people don’t seem to care which institutions have competency over which areas, they just care that things get done.

15.25

Viviane Reding tells a young bearded man in the audience: “What my generation is doing is laying the foundations so that your generation can later actually build a strong political Europe.”

Are these inspirational words for the younger generation? Or is this just kicking the can down the road until somebody else has to deal with it?

15.21

The problem of pan-European democracy is now being discussed. The key problem is: how do you “shift the mindset” so that parties campaign along European political lines, rather than just national lines?

Is such a thing even possible? Or is this perhaps being a bit optimistic?

15.18

Marc Tarabella MEP has the microphone again. He says: “I really support Viviane Reding, I would like HER to be the next Commission President, but I don’t think she has much chance. I think a German will get in.”

Could Tarabella possibly be referring to the current President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz?

15.12

A very apologetic young man saying the EU is a ‘big joke’.

He says: “It’s a joke to pretend that people in the European Parliament pretend they actually get along”.

Nobody knows, according to this questioner, what the policies are of the different political parties and groups in the European Parliament.

15.10

Interesting that so many people voted “Yes” for something as loosely defined as “political union” in Europe. What does “political union” actually mean?

15.09

And an overwhelming 91% voted “Yes” (though the moderator admits “I suspect that’s not representative”).

Even the one audience member they could find who voted “No” says: (“I think ‘Yes’, but I voted “No” anyway, because we are not familiar enough with the Members of the European Parliament).

15.07

More funky techno music, which means it’s time for another vote:

“Do you want a stronger political union?”

15.06

Apparently, some Europeans currently have no right to vote anywhere: not in their country of origin (because they left too long ago), nor in their country of residence. Reding says: “We’re going to get rid of all that, to make it easier for citizens” (presumably, she means getting rid of the red tape, not getting rid of voting).

15.01

Now we’re moving on to the final question of the debate: looking at the future of the EU, and the future of democracy in Europe.

15.00

The point is now being made that many of the things frustrating citizens (austerity, taxation, etc.) are actually competences of the national governments, not of the European Union. Does it therefore mean that citizens are “clearly” calling for more competencies for the European Union?

14.58

A woman from the audience has complained that it takes too long to conclude a court case in Belgium, and Viviane Reding should work to reduce the time it takes. Reding’s response is that, when looking at Europe as a whole, Belgium is actually average in terms of how long a court case takes. It can take 10 times longer in Portugal, Malta, Cyprus, or Italy.

So, don’t worry, it could be worse?

14.55

Reding argues that, prior to the Lisbon treaty, legal rights were a purely national competency. Now, however, the right to have a lawyer, right to interpretation, right to be informed why you are being put in prison, etc., are all part of European legislation.

However, Reding that whether justice for all actually works in practice is another question.

14.53

A question from the audience, from a woman who works as a court interpreter. She says that she knows first-hand, because of her work, that not all people have equal rights in Europe, so she asks Viviane Reding what can be done about this.

14.52

The discussion has, again, turned to shared “values” in Europe – such as democracy, human rights and so on. Is it possible to build a Union on values alone, or is more needed?

14.51

Viviane Reding talking about the political decision to expand Europe to include post-Soviet countries after the fall of the USSR, so citizens of these countries are now citizens of the EU. She argues that, for political reasons, there may be attempts to restrict the right to travel and work for, for example, Romanians or Bulgarians (a hot topic at the moment), but she would resist any attempts to restrict rights based on nationality.

14.40

Goodness.

An MEP, Marc Tarabella, has been given the microphone, and has let slip that MEPs are currently “speed dating” citizens at the European Parliament. Presumably this is some sort of democracy thing?

14.37

Another vote is underway: ‘Will you be voting in the European election in 2014?’

Belgium has compulsory voting laws, so, theoretically, the vote should be 100% “Yes”… but a sneaky 4% say they will be ignoring the law.

14.32

Funky techno music is playing, which means a vote is now underway.

The audience is asking: “Will Europe come out of the crisis stronger?”

57% vote “Yes” – which is a clear majority, but not quite as emphatic a “Yes” as the earlier vote for solidarity in Europe.

14.31

Reding is now saying that, per capita, her own country of Luxembourg is actually paying more than Germany for the bail-outs (or ‘solidarity funds’) – and yet there is no public debate in Luxembourg about whether they are paying too much.

14.28

The next question is about whether ‘solidarity’ should mean everybody paying the same levels of taxation in Europe. Again, Reding responds by reminding the audience that taxation is not an EU competency, and there is little the Commission can do about levels of taxation in Europe.

Again, it is the Member State governments that actually hold the purse strings.

14.26

Reding now responds to the comments, saying, first of all, that ‘Europe did not cause this crisis.”

Instead, it was caused by certain countries or financial actors behaving irresponsibly. But was the crisis exacerbated by (as some of our commenters here on Debating Europe have argued) having a shared currency – the euro – without a shared fiscal policy?

Reding also makes the point that the EU doesn’t have the sort of budget that is needed to implement policies of fiscal stimulus (nor does the European Central Bank currently have the mandate to just print money, unless the treaties are rewritten). The “purse strings” are controlled by the governments of the Member States.

14.20

A similar question from the next questioner: “We’re only being offered one single solution: austerity.”

14.19

Interesting question from the audience: “How can we really talk about ‘solidarity’ if we continue the policies of austerity, without a European growth plan?”

14.18

Using their space-age voting gizmos, the audience has been asked “Does Europe mean solidarity between the Member States?”

Remarkably, 80% of the audience voted “Yes”.

14.17

Should the Commission President be directly elected, like in the US or France? Or should  it rather be along the lines of a parliamentary system, as in the UK? Or perhaps the Commission should be abolished altogether? Let us know what you think!

14.15

Reding is now talking about the future of democracy in the European Union, including the possibility of people (eventually) directly electing the President of the European Commission. This is exactly one of the 5 ideas we discussed last week.

14.10

And now Viviane Reding has the floor, starting things by explaining that these debates are being held across Europe as a way to listen to the comments, criticism and ideas of ordinary citizens.

14.05

Picqué has finished his introductory remarks, saying he has every confidence in Europe, but to inspire that confidence you need to calmly debate the choices available to you as a society. This event is just one small part of that wider debate.

14.01

Charles Picqué says we all agree we need “more Europe” – but the question is exactly what variety of “more Europe” we want.

But are we really so certain that we DO all want “more Europe”? As Picqué readily admits, the audience in the room today probably isn’t totally representative of the majority of European citizens. Do most Europeans really want “more Europe”, or do they just want “less crisis”?

13.57

A short talk now by Charles Picqué, Minister-President of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, explaining that “Brussels” is not the same thing as the “European Union” (a public service announcement I’m sure he has to deliver regularly) and also warming up the audience for Viviane Reding.

13.49

I wonder if the live interpretors know we can hear them breathing so heavily into the microphones, and (or so it sounds) pouring each other a sneaky whiskey?

13.47

And we’re off! The audience will be voting on various questions during the course of the night, so they’ve all been given futuristic voting devices so they can participate live. The moderators are just explaining how these gizmos work, as well as the headsets for interpretation.

The moderator warns the audience: “Don’t take the headsets home with you! They won’t work outside of this hall, so you won’t have nabbed yourself a universal translator.”

13.44

Today’s event is taking place in La Tentation a popular music and dance venue in Brussels. Friday night is disco night. Saturday: a debate on the future of Europe.

13.36

The EU Commission is on the road this year, touring the Member States for the European Year of Citizens 2013. There will be a series of “Citizens’ Dialogues” taking place in towns and cities all across Europe, and you can check the schedule for upcoming town hall meetings here.

13.30

Looks like the room is filling up ready for the debate to start. Slightly cheesy, elevator music playing, so we must be almost ready.