* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Alumni from our two week course ‘Economic and Political Reporting from Southeast Europe’ in London went to Brussels for two days to meet with various officials are now writing about their experiences.
After two days of Q&A marathons with the cream of EU and NATO offices, our group was read to pick apart anybody who tries to talk empty words. Answering politely but a little around the question seemed to be a well adopted skill of the guys in suits there in Brussels.
Our first meeting on Tuesday was with Josef Janning, a political scientist with vast knowledge of European and overseas affairs. I googled him before the meeting - he studied in Germany and in the USA, he has been an university teacher in Mainz, Jerusalem and Beijing and it appeared that he enjoys giving interviews. I found his opinions in German, Russian, Chinese and Swedish media and was wondering if he knows something about our part of the world that we, the journalists, didn't.
The answer was No. But that was not disappointing because Janning outlined for us the bigger context of Europe as a whole. He insisted on the importance of EU-Russia and EU-China policies, because we are dependent on Russian energy and raw materials exports and we rely on Asians as investors and lenders.
Asians want our single market but we are not ready to open the gates for them. Meanwhile with unrest in Syria and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Europe has to think and act united, he said. Not to mention the debt crisis and the possibility of Greek exit of the euro - on this field the two leading economies in the block are dealing on the principle: France talks, Germany pays, he said.
On all these topics he gave us a rich discussion and again we were left with a mountain of unasked questions. The good news was that I got his card and if I wish to continue this talk with him, I can whenever I want.
