European Union Parliament

On Monday, I went to the European Union (EU) Parliament. The EU is a group of 27 countries from Europe that work together on issues of interest to all of the member countries such as the European economy and environmental issues. The buildings here in Brussels are their headquarters. Representatives from the different countries come here to meet with each other and pass laws. Everything is written in many different languages, and there are lots of flags from all of the member countries displayed throughout the EU buildings.





The buildings themselves are very modern, with lots of shiny glass on the outsides of the buildings. It looks very different than most of the other parts of the city which were built several hundred years ago. These buildings were all constructed in the past 15 years.





I went on a tour with lots of people from other countries. We were each given a small machine with headsets that explained what we were seeing. The machine could be set to talk in any of the member countries' languages except Gaelic. Where is Gaelic spoken?

When I was there, the Parliament was meeting in Strasbourg, so our tour was allowed to go inside of the room where Parliament usually meets. It is referred to as the "hemicycle." Here are some photos of me in the hemicycle.









When I get home, I want to learn more about the European Union. Here's a link for more information if you want to learn more, too: http://europa.eu/index_en.htm.