Since I was a trainee at the Commission I was always intrigued by Valdis Dombrovskis: his institutional smiles, his precise statements, his lulling voice… One day my curiosity took over and I finally reached out to his team, asking for a short interview. They were so kind to accept and, to my surprise, I discovered that the curiosity was mutual, as EVP Dombrovskis also reads DG MEME.
DG MEME had the pleasure to interview Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for the Digital Market. She is one of the most hard-working and appreciated EU politicians: she blasted Google, Apple, Gazprom, the French and German governments, and many others. Despite such powerful opponents, she always managed to remain impartial and unbiased.
Brave, daring and adventurous are not the first adjectives that come to mind when thinking about EU functionaries; the tabloid narrative wants them to be boring people, who work the bare minimum and just wait for an undeserved retirement. To fight this negative stereotype, DG MEME created a special unit called STARS (Spry Tattlers of Ancient and Radiant Stories), with the specific aim of collecting truly inspiring stories from our colleagues.
Today we have the great pleasure of interviewing Laimutė Pilukaitė, from the Commission’s Representation in Vilnius, Lithuania. Her calm glance and gentle manners conceal her past in the freedom movement that successfully fought for the independence of the Baltic States and her involvement in one of the most legendary (and peaceful) protests of all time.
Along the Baltic Way’s memory lane
Today we welcome Peter Wilding, solicitor, media director for the Conservatives, proud remainer, political commentator and, last but not the least, creator of the word Brexit.
“Brexit means Brexit…” How does it feel to give the enemies their most important word?
In the beginning was the Word: conversation with the creator of the term Brexit
With Europe Day approaching and no way to celebrate it in person, we decided to binge-watch the TV series Parlement, a political comedy set in the European Parliament and available for free in France (but geoblocked, ironically) and for money in Belgium (believe it or not). We had some EU-talk with one of its authors, Maxime Calligaro, who also has experience in working for the EU Institutions.
Parlement, the Interview