The EU is currently making a sustained effort to educate young people around Europe about the functions of its institutions and the impact current decisions, such as those regarding the single currency, social chapter and monetary union, will have on our collective future.
It is against this background that young journalists and students from across Europe attended a conference The Single Currency; Young People Speak Out at the new and luxurious Espace Leopold European Parliament building in Brussels.
For some of the journalists covering this conference, however, the event turned into a sustained effort to educate themselves about the confusing geography and general layout of the Espace Leopold building rather than reporting on young people questioning top Eurocrats about convergence criteria, exchange rate mechanisms and the extremely touchy issue of a European central bank.
Distinctive building
Situated only a few minutes walk in down-town Brussels from the distinctive and famous Berlaymont building, the enormous Espace Leopold complex - the last phase of which is due for completion in the summer of 1997 - will have a floor space of some 375,000 square metres and cost in the region of 44.5 billion Belgium Francs.
For ease of contact with the European Commission and European Council, it is here where parliamentary committees meet (usually for two weeks every month) and where the odd plenary session of the European Parliament is held. A lot of the spade work behind issues relating to the European Parliament are conducted in the Espace Leopold complex.
On the morning of the conference and, after being directed to the wrong entrance on three separate occasions by security staff at the building, this journalist eventually arrived at 8.30 a.m. outside the complex's press entrance. The conference was due to begin at 9 a.m., so everything seemed to be in hand. Getting press accreditation, however, took a little longer than expected.
At 9.45 a.m. I was wandering around looking for an office, number 1A50, where I was told the conference's press attache could be found. However, after taking directions from some very obliging office staff of numerous nationalities at various points around the building, I was still chasing my quarry - the elusive 1A50 - half an hour later.
Bubbling blood
To make matters even more frustrating and my blood pressure positively bubble, I had actually managed to find office numbers 1A49 and 1A51. Alas, office number 1A50 was nowhere to be found and, before you ask, I would like to state in the strongest possible terms that I'm absolutely and 100 per cent certain that it wasn't staring me in the face.
At this point - an hour and 15 minutes late for the conference - I began to worry about ever getting to my destination. Help, however, was at hand from a distinguished and highly unlikely source.
Exasperating search
Coming towards me and looking as lost, confused and frustrated as myself was my MEP, Mary Banotti. I introduced myself, gave her a brief summary of my exasperating search for 1A50 and, as a very long shot, asked if she'd seen it anywhere. She laughed, looked towards the heavens and said: "I can't find a room where I'm supposed to be either. This type of thing goes with the territory."
She then swung into action by politely interrupting somebody's secretary in 1A49 who, curiously enough, also had never heard of room 1A50. After a few minutes of quick-fire phone calls, it was established that nobody knew of the whereabouts of 1A50 - or could even ascertain if it actually existed - but we did manage to find out where my conference was taking place.
Happy and relieved, I thanked Mrs Banotti for her intervention and made my way to one of the complex's larger conference venues where young people from across Europe - including a group from King's Hospital in Dublin - were in animated debate with EU officals about the benefits of EMU.
As I left Mrs Banotti, however, the thought did cross my mind that seeking her assistance to find a room in a European Parliament building was, curiously enough, the first time I'd ever had to call on my MEP.
Lets hope that, as the EU strives to make the roles and functions of its institutions more intellectually accessible, that it also strives to make those same institutions more physically accessible as well.