This morning the Committee played host to the European Commission’s President, José Manuel Barroso, who had come to debate the Commission’s 26 November European Economic Recovery Plan and also the Lisbon Strategy and the link between the two. The EESC’s President, Mario Sepi, wrote to Barroso on 14 November to express the Committee’s concerns with regard to the more vulnerable in our societies, the need for continued articulation with the overall Lisbon Strategy for an intelligent and green economy, and the need for Europe to take a central and guiding role as the crisis unfolds. Barroso, who spoke with passion and conviction, was happy to concur. This was, he pointed out, the first crisis for the ‘globalised’ world and he was proud of the central role Europe had been playing. It was a rich speech  and, in a strange way, both a reassuring and a depressing one. Depressing, because there are increasing signs that we are entering a prolonged difficult period in which jobs will be lost, homes repossessed and people suffer. Reassuring, because there is a plan – a good one – and, at least as far as the Commission is concerned, the resolve and determination to make it work. Reassuring also because the crisis has provided proof positive of the advantages of the euro and the euro zone. 

As Barroso put it, just imagine if European economies had started a round of competitive devaluations. We are all in this together and the general hope expressed by speakers in the debate is that member states will not forget this.

The carolers in the JDE building

As we left for Malta a big Christmas tree was going up in the entrance hall of the Jacques Delors building and today we had Christmas carols in the same hall sung by the institutions’ choir. Having worked in quite a few institutions over the years I have a few friends in the choir (which is of a very high quality, incidentally) and it’s always nice to see them again in such circumstances. It also means that Christmas is almost upon us. It’s a cliché, but this year has gone so fast.

Today was a big day for the European Economic and Social Committee and also for its new President and its new Secretary General. This afternoon the 39-member Bureau (the main managerial decision-making organ of the Committee) met. It had a number of politically important points on its agenda, not least of them the European Commission’s recovery plan (its President, José Manuel Barroso, will be speaking to the plenary on this subject this Thursday morning) and the proposal of our President, Mario Sepi, for the Committee to generate a ‘manifesto’ of ideas and proposals in the Spring of next year to feed into the European Parliament’s reflection processes, in the lead-up to the autumn 2009 investiture of the new Commission and the generation of its work and legislative programmes. The Bureau held rich debates on both topics, and the President received unanimous backing for his plans, which was really great for him. He has prepared very carefully for his Presidency and has ‘hit the ground running’. The ‘manifesto’ is a flagship idea that will surely be a great success in terms of voicing the concerns and priorities of civil society organisations for the next five years.

The Bureau also discussed ‘stickier’ topics, such as budgetary issues and the launching of the process of adapting the Committee’s rules of procedure. Traditionally, however, there is no topic stickier than changes to the Committee’s establishment plan, and my proposal for a wholesale change to that plan was also on the agenda. We got to it late, at seven-thirty in the evening, but after a robust and frank debate the Bureau unanimously gave me its confidence. It was the rewarding culmination of an intensive period of reflection that began when I was first nominated as SG on 8 July this year and which involved a very broad consultation and information process, both within and outside the house. The Bureau’s unanimous confidence means a huge amount to me, and I am absolutely determined to repay it by delivering the results I promised on 8 July and have repeatedly promised ever since; a dynamic, highly qualified and positively-motivated administration working in the spirit of a service culture and providing the strongest possible support for our members and the unique role they play in the European Union’s policy-making processes.

Jacques Genton: first EESC SG

Sad news came in whilst we were in Malta. The European Economic and Social Committee’s first ever Secretary General, Jacques Genton, passed away on Thursday, 27 November at the age of 90. He had a rich and varied public career in national and local French politics, notably serving as a Deputy and then as a Senator (he was President of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee) and as Mayor of Sancerre. He also played a key role in the establishment of the European Economic Community and served as an expert in  the newly-formed Council of Ministers before being nominated in 1958 as the EESC’s first Secretary General. He served for no less than 13 years. Like Emile Noël (first Secretary General of the European Commission, served for 28 years) and Christian Calmes (first Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, served for 21 years), he was one of a select band of pioneering senior civil servants who created the European public administration and infused it with the strong sense of purpose that it has retained until this day. One of our members, Hubert Ghigonis, knew Genton personally and recalled that he had also been active at the Messina conference, and later worked closely with Maurice Faure (then a French Minister for Foreign Affairs) and Jean-François Poncet. Our Bureau observed a minute’s silence in his memory and we’re now organising a memorial service for early in the New Year. Dean Acheson famously wrote ‘At the Creation’, about his years at the US State Department during a momentous period of post-war history. It’s a shame that such European figures did not also get to record their impressions of the momentous early years of the EU’s life.