My professor used to be a member of Parliament, so he knew the member who was giving us a tour. First the member gave us a power point presentation explaining how parliament operates and more specifically how it deals with the EU. Denmark has a committee, Foreign Affairs, which has a representative elected from each party within the EU. That representative's job is to convey his or her party's position on the issues that are before the EU and the WTO. What's interesting is that this committee directly dictates what their representative at the EU in Brussels is allowed to do. So if the issue before the EU was immigration this committee would give their rep. specific guidelines and parameters that he or she would be able to negotiate within.
This is different than other countries whose representatives make the choice and then go back and explain to their government. The member said that in Denmark it is different because the government is minority run, meaning that there are many parties within the government.
In addition to the structure of their Parliament being different than our Congress, the building itself was quite different. We did not walk through any mental detectors. I saw no weapons. Their constitution was framed in glass, but you could walk right up to it. It was a much more relaxed capital than ours. The Maine State House or the federal building in Augusta have tighter entrance security.
After the tour I got gelato( nutella and hazelnut--extremely similar) and came back to my kolligum to pack/run/do laundry before the trip tomorrow. I got an iron today so I steamed some of my clothes. I also made end-of-summer vegetable soup. Very delicious, but I burnt the tip of my tongue when I was seasoning it. I leave at 815 tomorrow from downtown, so I'm heading to bed now to get a complete night's sleep.
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