Brussels Diary

Jana Toom's Week: Midnight Negotiations

Last week, the main event was once again the trilogue. It was a tough process, lasting many hours and ending at midnight. Still we managed to reach a ...


Jana Toom’s week: Tallinn, Brussels, Riga

Monday began with ‘10 Minutes with Jana Toom’ on Radio Maximum; this time we discussed the revised Anti-Trafficking Directive (I was the shadow rappor...


Jana Toom’s Week: The Strasbourg Heat

In the language of the European Parliament, these weeks are called “Strasbourg sessions”—as a reminder, it is in this French city that a plenary sessi...


Jana Toom’s Week: The Long-Awaited Trilogue

For me, the highlight of the week was the negotiations over the Directive on the Coordination of Social Security Systems, which took place on Wednesda...


Jana Toom’s Week: Cities on the Frontline

The highlight of the past week was a conference aimed at securing funding from the European Commission for major cities, including those in Estonia, t...


Jana Toom’s Week: Tallinn, Brussels, Lapland

This week saw a short plenary session of the European Parliament, lasting not four days, but two, and held not in Strasbourg, but in Brussels itself.&...


Jana Toom’s Week: Protecting Adults and the European Budget

Committee debates, working on documents, scandals, intrigues, investigations – another week in the life of an MEP, shuttling between Tallinn and Bruss...


Jana Toom’s week: The UN is more alive than dead

Last week was an ‘American’ and ‘women’s’ week for me – from Monday to Thursday I was on a mission for the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equa...