Misused terminology at the EI

Here is the link for "A Brief List of Misused Terms in EU Publications".  Thank you J-J!

Conversation exchange

Here you can have access to the Conversation Exchange website.

Make, do, get and have

Here you can find some information and exercises on the use of the verbs 'make', 'do', 'get' and 'have'.

Gerund vs. infinitive

Numerous exercises on gerund vs. infinitive along with their key are hereby made available for you to have access at your convenience.  You can also find the list of verbs used with gerund and/or infinitive here.

Here you can find more information and exercises on the same topic.

Subject-Verb agreement

You can find a document on subject-verb agreement with exercises here.  The key for the exercises is available here.

A longer document entitled "Grammar and Punctuation for Business Communication"  is hereby available.  Please refer to pages 11 - 14 for subject-verb agreement. 

Planned obsolescence

Here are two links, which F. has submitted for our next session:

The Economist

Forbes

Moreover, the following questions were tabled by F.:

1- Lifetime of kitchen appliances: should there be specific time limit?
2- Environment: how should the waste be managed?
3- Should there be a specific regulation(s) in place?

Thank you F!

Here you can find a short list of the pros and cons.

During our next session we will be starting by tabling the pros and cons of planned obsolescence, and then try to reach a common ground.

Adopting English as the only working langauge

Here you can have access to a webpage with arguments for and against adopting English as the only working language at the EI.

As we did during our previous sessions, we split into two groups to table the arguments for and against.  Since this was a negotiation, and not a debate, we did this with the aim of reaching a common position.

We decided that it would be better to have two working languages instead of one or three, and then we agreed on English and French.  

Austerity vs. spending

Here is a BBC source on the pros and cons of austerity.

Here is an article from The Economist with the two positions: Keynes vs. Hayek.

Here is a piece from Paul Krugman's blog on The New York Times website.  Thank you O!

During the session March 29th, we split into two camps to table the advantages and disadvantages of austerity to help the EU economies out of the crisis with a view to reaching a common ground on the issue.  This was supposed to be a meeting composed of the members of a task force, which was set up to come up with some proposals to help the EU economies get out of the crisis in the nearest possible future.

During the session we seemed to have reached a common ground on the following issues:

1- Necessary measures should be taken to stimulate economic growth evenly across the EU.

2. We should decrease unemployment.

3- We should increase European companies' competitiveness in the global markets.

4- Foreign investors' confidence in EU economies should be maintained if not increased.

5- Average citizens should not bear the burden of the  austerity measures if we cannot avoid them.

6- These measures should not have a negative impact on consumer confidence.

7-  More spending does not necessarily mean more public spending; there could be public-private partnerships to stimulate economic growth.

8- Waste in the public sector should be minimized if not eliminated.

9- If companies and/or countries need to be bailed out, we need to make sure that there is no  moral hazard.

10- We should try to avoid social unrest and/or populist take-overs. 

These are the ten points I wrote down. If I have missed something, please let me know.

As you suggested at the end of the previous session, on April 5th we revisited two of these points to come up with a common action plan.

We thus discussed points no. 7 and 8. 

Concerning point no. 7, we agreed that promotion of public-private partnership (PPP) should be done in such a way that the relation is not only sysmetrically reciprocal, e.g., between unversities and the industry, but also transparent.   In reference to the issue of transparency, the role of the lobbyists and/or think tanks representing various industries was mentioned.  The documentary entitled "The Brussels Business" was also relevant in this context. We also talked about incentivization and regulation, which could both be used to promote PPP, with the preference given the former.

Concerning point no. 8,  after having asked what is meant by 'waste', we mainly focused on human resource management.  We agreed that continuity and consistency should be the two priorieties in HR management. We then discussed the EI's policy concerning contract agents to see if it is in line with these two priorities.  We also agreed that the main criteria in hiring, firing and promotion decisions should be merit and productivity.  

  

Affirmative action: gender equality

Here you can find a short piece on advantages and disadvantages of affirmative action in general.

Here you can see The Economist's glass-ceiling index. 

During our next session, we will be splitting into two camps to table the advantages and disadvantages of affirmative action to promote gender equality at the work place with a view to reaching a common ground on the issue.  We can limit our focus to the EC and/or expand it to the EU.

After our session, F. sent me some more material on the topic:
Here you can find the table with data on gender balance at the EC.
Here you can find an article on Sheryl Sandberg from The Guardian.
Thank you F! 

Signposting and survival tactics

Here you can find a four-page document with exercises on signposting and some survival tactics, which could come in handy during a negotiation. (Source: Presenting in English by Mark Powell)

Basic negotiation skills

Here you can find the handouts with some basic negotiation skills.

Opinions, agreeing and disagreeing

Here you can find some phrases which can be used to express your opinions, agreements and disagreements along with some exercises.

BBC on negotiations

Here you can have access to the BBC website on negotiations, where they have useful expressions and/or phrases contextualized in short dialogues available as audio streams with transcripts.

Here you can have access to the BBC website, where they provide some examples for interruptions contextualized in a short dialogue available as an audio stream with a transcript.

Here you can have access to the BBC website, where they provide some examples for agreements and disagreements contextualized in a short dialogue available as an audio stream with a transcript.