Brussels bubble: Best alphabet soup ever?

Today, 23 April 2017, is the annual World Book Day, the event of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as  presented by Wikipedia.

With readers and writers in mind, let us remember the “Brussels style guide” in 24 EU languages, officially the Interinstitutional style guide, as a tool to make sense of the mythological Tower of Babel for those who write for the European Union in a professional capacity.

The Brussels bubble can be seen as an isolated expat community (Euractiv), be run as an insider section (Politico), or derided as a world apart from the EU’s citizens (Open Democracy), often in the same vein as Washington DC has been pictured at least since Mark Twain, up to and including the Trump presidential campaign.

Brussels bubblese

If the Brussels bubble is routinely accused of being an incomprehensible alphabet soup kitchen, let us turn to a prime example of the language of the bubble, Brussels bubblese, an exquisite compilation of abbreviations and acronyms: the (133 pages) Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation 2017.

On page 8 of the Rolling Plan, you find the following expression of gratitude:

The Commission would like to thank all Members of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation for their active collaboration and for making this document possible: the EU Member States, EFTA States, standard setting organisations (ETSI, CEN, CENELEC, ISO, IEEE, IEC, ITU, OMG, IETF/IAB, OASIS, Ecma, W3C/ERCIM, UN/CEFACT), industry associations (Business Europe, Cable Europe, Digital Europe, ECIS, ETNO, EBU, EuroISPA, SBS, OFE, Orgalime) and stakeholder associations (AGE, ANEC, ECOS, EDF, ETUC).

You might need the antidote offered by Annex III: Terms, definitions and abbreviations (from page 131), where some of the abbreviations and acronyms are explained.

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I cannot be sure that this is is the best alphabet soup ever presented in Brussels bubblese, but I challenge you to bring forward more eminent examples.

Ralf Grahn

Mathew Lowry and Michael Malherbe improving Mediacafé?

The well intentioned Brussels event Mediacafé “Europe: no medium, no message?” on 18 October 2010 may actually become a better event, if the organisers and panellists take care to read and reflect on the blog post by Mathew Lowry and the comments: Oh, so it’s the media’s fault noone likes the EU … (15 October 2010).



Add a few salient points by Michael Malherbe on Se former à la communication européenne in: Que fait l’UE pour adapter sa communication à l’Internet mobile ? (13 October 2010).

A few more blog entries to peruse on both blogs, for those with the time and inclination, and some constructive thoughts might start to surface, possibly even a few with relevance for 501 million EU citizens, most of them mentally and geographically far from the “Brussels Bubble”.

It is never too late to start imagining a better life, but online media, social media, mobile media and professional journalism are all part of it, even with regard to communication by the EU institutions.




Ralf Grahn

Euroblogs: Bursting the Brussels Bubble?

Is the Euroblogosphere an insignificant appendix to the Brussels Bubble, or perhaps (potentially) something more? Let us offer ‘citoyen lambda (européen)’ (the average EU citizen) a complimentary tour.



First, we can state that multilingual Bloggingportal.eu has grown to aggregate 635 Euroblogs (blogs related to EU affairs). In a year and a half, Bloggingportal.eu has more than doubled in size, and it continues to grow.

What more does the aggregator tell us about the state of the Euroblogosphere?

The front page offers a convenient view of a few highlighted posts (editors’ choices) daily, also available through a daily newsletter, as well as a weekly roundup. You are welcome to subscribe.



You can press the Posts button or subscribe to the Bloggingportal.eu stream for all posts to get the array of new blog entries with regard to facts, opinions, themes and languages.



There is, of course, a difference between listed and active Euroblogs. We have entered holiday season – low season for blogging - but let us take a look behind the Blogs button.

Admittedly the classifications are a bit arbitrary, but during the last seven days 27 blogs by journalists or media have published, 69 individual blogs, 19 MEP or Europarty blogs, 15 network blogs, 5 Commissioner blogs, 3 blogs by government representatives, 11 by think tanks or academics, 17 by civil society or NGO blogs.

The result is that 166 Euroblogs had published at least one post during the last seven days, when I checked a short while ago.

An impressive number of active blogs during low season, in my view.

How long can you write about UK politics if you exclude London (Westminster), or about politics in France without mentioning the institutions of the French Republic?



Likewise, it would be highly unnatural to discard the EU institutions from Euroblogs, but the subjects, viewpoints and languages of blog entries extend well beyond the “Brussels Bubble”.

At least in part, Euroblogs offer the “Brussels Bubble” feedback on the outside world of half a billion Europeans.




Ralf Grahn



P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly, and as Eurobloggers we should promote interaction among Europeans. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:

I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.

Manneken Pis wants you? Pillow talk on “Brussels”?

Uncle Sam wants you, is one of the famous slogans worldwide. Everyone knows that Uncle Sam is the personification of the United States.

If you try to invent something equally hard hitting for the other great union, the EU, perhaps a sense of creeping despair affects you too.



The member states chucked out the official symbols of the European Union from the Lisbon Treaty (but leaving customary use), and for most of the EU’s 500 million population the union feels as personal and personable as a complicated chemical formula.

Brussels – in 23 official languages – has become the closest thing to the de facto capital and the main symbol of the European Union.

The use of “Brussels”, or “Brussels Bubble”, tends to be far from affectionate. The whipping-boy of Europe has an image problem, if we use a mild expression. Deservedly so, many would add.

To complicate matters further, Brussels is the official capital of Belgium (a country almost as complex and ungovernable as the European Union).



If and when “Brussels” wants to find a more engaging and cuddly symbol for citizens, the best known tourist attraction of Brussels is a statue of a peeing boy, Manneken Pis.

Despite the overabundant online offer of (fake) organ-enhancement and potency pills, Manneken Pis remains the symbol of Belgian Brussels, without growth potential to reach European stature.



Dear readers, before you turn to Mathew Lowry’s recruitment drive for subject specialist Euroblogs on EU issues, I invite you to think about the image of the European Union and the lack of official and unofficial symbols.



Does the European Union need and does it deserve more pillow talk?




Ralf Grahn