The European Presidency: Cooperation between Chamber, Senate, and Paddle.be
During the first semester of 2024, Belgium held the presidency of the Council of the European Union. An important part of this presidency is the so-called "Parliamentary Dimension". In this context, Chamber, Senate, and the regional parliaments organized a number of inter-parliamentary conferences. For communication about these conferences and activities, a separate website was needed, apart from the existing websites of Chamber and Senate. The choice fell on Paddle for the development of this new website.
Every six months, the European presidency changes, accompanied by a parliamentary segment with events and a website for information dissemination. Setting up the website for the parliamentary dimension of the European presidency was a challenging but essential step.
Tim De Bondt
Communication director of the Senate
The Request
The request from the Federal Parliament was clear: "We needed a platform that was not only informative and user-friendly but also flexible enough to meet the needs of the parliamentary dimension", said Tim. The website had to be aimed at parliamentarians from both domestic and foreign countries, as well as the participants of the conferences, providing information, documents, photos, and press releases. Blog posts were intended for the broader public and were primarily distributed via social media.
The Solution
After evaluating five different companies, the choice fell on Paddle.be. "Paddle.be proved to be the best choice because they have experience with institutional projects and quickly understood our needs. Some companies wanted to sell a house, while we only wanted a garage", explains Tim.
Paddle handled the design and development of the website with a focus on simplicity and functionality. "The modules are quite basic because we didn't want any bells and whistles. The website had to be identical in four languages, with the same look and feel", says Tim. The house style was imposed by the Belgian government, influencing design choices. Despite this limitation, Paddle succeeded in creating a modern and functional website.
The website was launched on January 1, 2024, and remains operational until July 1, 2025.
Specific Content Types/Modules
Several modules were implemented for the new website, including an events calendar, FAQ, news, social media sharing, etc., to meet the specific needs of the parliamentary dimension.
"The flexibility of Paddle's CMS made it easy to customize these modules to our specific requirements", says Tim. The website is entirely built and managed with the Paddle CMS, with the project being 100% executed by Paddle. We didn't need complex modules; the primary importance was a well-developed blog section.
The Result
The result is a website that meets all the requirements and expectations. "The daily management is well organized", says Tim. "The communication team quickly became familiar with Paddle's CMS thanks to the clear and comprehensive training we received."
"We received positive feedback from, among others, the Portuguese and Austrian parliaments", Tim adds. "They see the website and accompanying social media as an example for future presidencies. This confirms that our communication style and quick updates are highly appreciated."
Regarding support from Paddle, De Bondt is very satisfied. "The personal guidance from project managers Okan and Wouter was fantastic and ensured the project ran smoothly. If I had to give Paddle a score out of 10, it would definitely be a 9", concludes Tim. "Paddle.be focuses on the government, the municipalities, and the administrations that don't need an overload of functionalities. They listen to what we want and implement it without insisting on extras."
