The European Parliament’s passion for plants in offices
Teo Dalavecuras tells and comments on the latest contempt for ridicule by the College of Quaestors of the European Parliament
The subject is: "Improvement of the working environment", but summarizing the content of the message signed by David Casa representing the College of Quaestors of the European Parliament would do wrong to those who created the text and, indirectly, to those who conceived the operation communicated to the European parliamentarians.
Casa writes: “Studies show that plants have a positive impact on the work environment, making it more attractive, improving air quality in general and promoting well-being. Following the refurbishment of the Members' offices (they will not be "honorable" like the members of our parliament, but at least the capitalization is needed, ed ), it was therefore proposed to implement a generalized and structured approach for the distribution of plants in the offices, and to develop the related guidelines. On the basis of this proposal, each Member can request two plants of an appropriate size from the Administrative Assistance Service for both his own office and the offices of his assistants in Brussels. In addition, the common areas of all the buildings of the European Parliament will gradually be furnished with an adequate supply of greenery ”.
With all the evil one can think of European bureaucracy, I would almost be tempted to believe that this is a hoax concocted by Florian Eder, the editor of Politico Brussels Playbook who released the letter from the Quaestors. The problem, unfortunately, is that “if it is not true, it is well found”: it is entirely probable.
It reminds me of an observation made many years ago by Romano Prodi, who pointed out to the detractors of the Brussels institutions that they, in the final analysis, did a huge job for a cost no more than 1 percent of the countries' GDP. EU: indisputable observation.
The problem was (and is) that it is not only or always a question of money. Over the years and decades the Brussels bureaucracy has developed rituals, practices and languages and a "style", perhaps at prices of absolute convenience (even if there are no terms of reference) but certainly with deep and lasting contempt for ridicule, and not only.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-passione-del-parlamento-europeo-per-le-piante-negli-uffici/ on Tue, 15 Dec 2020 16:03:44 +0000.