PLACE LUXEMBOURG
31 August 2007

I just came home from the famous, but inofficial, 'EU institution': Place Luxembourg. Place Luxembourg is a square right next to the European Parliament where all Eurocrats hang out for the after work drinks. It's been really calm during the last few months but now everyone is back and it seems like they have missed the Belgian beer over summer!

This is where you are supposed to network. THE place to make new contacts. But why? Networking in order to find jobs (most Brussels jobs are found this way), in order to find new clients (consultancies), in order to influence and lobby MEPs, in order to get inside info from Commission officials... At the same time there is a very special wibe: Friendly and everyone is very open to meet new people. People who work in Brussels generally have an interested mindset - otherwise they wouldn't have left their countries. It is an atmosphere in which almost everything seems possible.

Networking is the most important skill when you work in Brussels. If you are shy and don't like meeting people, Brussels is probably hell. Receptions, exhibitions, lectures and cocktail parties are as important as cumputer literacy, or even literacy. I know a guy who doesn't know how punctuation works and spells about every second word wrong - and he is still a senior EU policy advisor. And he is of course an amazing networker.

Place Lux is also a place where you bump into people from your 'previous lives'. Several times I have met people who I have known before in different cities. Of course this depends on the fact that most people I know are interested in EU/politics and that's why they ended up in Brussels as well. But when you think about it - it probably doesn't happen in many other cities that you - by accident - just bump into old friends of different nationalities during your after work drinks!