It's now been over a year since I moved from Madrid to Brussels, left journalism, and started working as a civil servant for the European Commission. Here are some things that I learned (thread.) 1/ https://twitter.com/jdiegotorres/status/1194215747200933889

Contrary to the stereotype, EU civil servants do work a lot. The teams are small and a lot gets done with limited resources. Commission staff (32,000), for example, is only a bit larger than that of the town hall of Madrid (26,000.) 2/

I was thrown into the law-making process of the Commission after reporting for years on the vicious, polarized Spanish political arena (whose dynamics are not so different from other Western countries.) Maybe for that reason, I've become a believer. 3/

I believe that having a European institution dedicated to proposing and examining laws that is more detached from electoral competition and focused on making things work rather than beating political rivals is a great asset for Europe. 4/

At the risk of sounding naïf, I must say I'm also proud of what the European Union as a whole has achieved in this very difficult year, despite the mistakes and the shortcomings. 5/ https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1337335244396130305?s=20

On the personal side, it wasn't an easy ride. The Commission's inner workings are complex. Becoming familiar with words such as "working party," "steering committee," "inter-service group," and not getting lost in meetings where everyone speaks in acronyms, was challenging. 6/

I came from a hyper-connected field (journalism). Most of my colleagues at the Commission don't even have a Twitter account or use it rarely if they do. That is slowly changing, but the difference is huge, for good and bad. 7/

Brussels is an amazing city for families. You get awesome parks and forests. Playgrounds for children are big, original and different from one another, the most visual proof that a lot of resources are invested into kids' wellbeing 8/

http://www.suede36.be/fr/content/plaine-de-jeux-george-henri