We’re in a plenary session week once again (they seem – to me, at least – to come around so fast). We had the early management board and pre-session meeting this morning and this evening the Enlarged Presidency (the President, Vice-Presidents, Group Presidents and the Secretary General) met to go through the Bureau and Plenary Session agenda in order to smooth out the processes and ensure overall success. If a Secretary General may venture an opinion, despite being an entirely informal body, the Enlarged Presidency is now such an established part of the landscape both because it is necessary and because it works. The dynamics are now well-established, including ‘whispering interpretation’ provided by two ever-excellent volunteer translators. Looking around the table, I say to myself that the meeting is roughly the same size as the original High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community and the first European Commission. It gives an idea of just how intimate those first meetings, chaired by Jean Monnet and Walter Hallstein respectively, must have been.

Part of the authenticity of the membership of the European Economic and Social Committee is derived from the fact that most members work for just a few mandates before handing over to fresh blood. On the logic of ‘once a member, always a member’, the Committee supports an Association of Former Members which meets twice a year. Today the Association met in the Committee’s headquarters and was addressed by a series of speakers, starting with EESC President Staffan Nilsson, on the theme of ‘How can Europe transition to an institutional and policy framework that provides for the combination of economic growth, jobs, sovereign debt containment and a robust financial services sector?’ As Secretary General I also had the pleasure and privilege of addressing the Association, to which former officials may also belong, on the subject of ‘Progress and Challenges’. As I told them, I am now in the fourth year of my mandate and so can indeed look back and see where progress was achieved, as well as forward to the challenges ahead. But my basic message was that the longer I have worked at the Committee the more I have become convinced of the unique authenticity of its members, volunteers for the cause, both feet firmly planted in the real world and, very politely, telling truth to power. In the picture, by the way, is former EESC President Alfons Margot who, at a spritely 90 years of age, honoured me with his presence.

This evening we gazed with admiration on a pretty alignment of three celestial bodies in the night sky: a very bright Venus, a more distant Jupiter, and a young Moon. There is much in the media about this rare realignment that will also see Venus traverse the disk of the sun, an event that occurs just twice every four hundred years. They were all so bright, and this in the city centre, that I felt almost like getting into the car and driving to somewhere really dark to gaze on their full beauty. But, then, I would probably have had to drive a very long way… Postscript: At this site you can see a wonderful photograph by somebody who did manage to find somewhere dark.

To Halle this afternoon for a show entitled ‘Stars in Brass’. The primary stars in question were Brassband Buizingen, one of Europe’s top amateur brassbands. Under the skillful baton of Luc Vertommen, the band performed a series of pieces ranging from an adaptation of Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro) to the world premiere of composer-in-residence Nigel Clarke’s When worlds collide. The band’s manager, Eddy Vanhaelen, is making a conscious effort to bring in a new, young audience, and so the second half of the bill saw the band accompanying Flemish heart throb Jasper Steverlink as he worked his way through a song list that concluded with an excellent rendition of David Bowie’s Life on Mars. This was followed by a last surprise act, a Michael Jackson imitator dancing and singing Billie Jean. Vanhaelen’s plan worked. There were plenty of young people in the audience who probably would never otherwise have come to listen to a brass band and it was clear that they had liked what they’d heard. After all, few sounds can be more impressive than a brass band working its way, crescendo fashion, to a loud conclusion!

For once, the sun shone on Schaerbeek’s annual Carnival parade. Whenever I can, I walk to the end of my road each year to watch it. It is a quintessentially Belgian occasion, from the somewhat moth-eaten old mascots and giants to the beer-drinking performers and marching bands and the sheer fantasy of the costumes. (The ones in my picture were literally fashioned out of lampshades!) This year, as I was minding my own business, watching the floats as they proceeded towards me down the rue Dailly, I got pelted with boiled sweets. Now, this is a traditional part of the occasion, the throwing of sweets and fruit to (or at) the onlookers. But this bombardment of sweets was particularly persistent. I looked around and there was Isabelle Durant, Vice-President of the European Parliament, resplendent in a Caribbean costume and bandanna and with a big grin on her face!

Today the European Economic and Social Committee’s steering committee on the Europe 2020 strategy met in the presence of representatives from the network of national economic and social councils and similar bodies. The steering committee, chaired by Joost Van Iersel (Dutch, Employers’ Group), was addressed first by the Committee’s President, Staffan Nilsson, and then by Richard Corbett, a member of the private office of the President of the European Council. Corbett came to recount the substance and the dynamics of the European Council’s recent work in looking beyond the crisis towards growth and jobs. It was good to welcome Richard to the Committee. I have known him since we were young officials, he in the Parliament, me in the Commission, and we were both writing academic articles about the institutions and the integration process. Later, we would become fellow authors under the same publishing imprint. Richard went on to become a much respected MEP and now he is an advisor to Herman Van Rompuy. The basic message: we are not out of the woods yet and much remains to be done but if we stick to what we have agreed then the worst is over as far as the financial markets are concerned, leaving the Union to concentrate more fully on the twin challenges of sustainable growth and jobs.

We held another meeting – the fourth – of our enlargement (Croatia) task force this morning. Preparations are well under way for the July 2013 arrival of the European Union’s twenty-eighth Member State, our nine new Croatian members and a twenty-fourth working language. It looks as though this task force will become a standing one, as various potential new Member States work their way towards us; no more ‘big bangs’ of the 2004 and 2007 sort, then, but gradual expansion.

Over the past two days the European Economic and Social Committee has been holding a conference to mark the 50th anniversary of EU farming policy. The aim of the conference was not only to celebrate the CAP but also to highlight the future challenges and opportunities facing the EU, regarding this key policy, and to express the expectations of European civil society. Participants from EU institutions, Member State governments and stakeholder organisations have been discussing the CAP’s impact on farmers, consumers, food security and trade. They have also been sharing their hopes and expectations concerning EU agriculture over the next 50 years. In his introductory speech, EESC President Staffan Nilsson, stressed that “after 50 years, the CAP is still very young and constantly changing, and remains the only truly common European policy”. He continued, saying that “we all have the responsibility to build the new CAP for our future and for the future of our children” and emphasised the importance of “supporting innovation, research and development, strengthening the capacities of farmers, increasing investments in agriculture and reducing food wastage at all stages.” Mario Campli, President of the EESC’s Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment (NAT) section, said that a “new pact” is needed between different actors of European farming “to secure the future for agriculture in Europe”. Commissioner Dacian Ciolo?, responsible for agriculture and rural development, took part in the closing session. “The road towards the new Common Agricultural Policy is still ahead of us, its destination being a policy that answers the expectations of all European citizens”, he said. “Civil society’s contribution to this reform process is vital, and the role of the European Economic and Social Committee as a platform mobilising all stakeholders concerned is essential”.

At lunchtime to an informal meeting, organised by the EESC’s President, Staffan Nilsson, in order to explore new ways of opening up the EESC in areas such as consultation, working methods and content delivery. The guest speaker today was Hannes Leo, an Austrian economist specialised in innovation policy, and also a delegate to the EESC’s Consultative Commission on Industrial Change. Leo explained a software development, Cbase, that allows the authors of documents to consult with colleagues on all parts of the document, paragraph by paragraph and, through an algorithm, to identify possible bases for compromise and consensus. An interesting tool for consultative work…

I continued with my ‘meeting the troops’ series this morning, enjoying a working breakfast with the Infrastructure Unit. Infrastructure is part of the Joint Services, the pioneering arrangement whereby the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions pool their resources in a series of horizontal areas in order to achieve synergies and economies of scale. That meant that I met with officials from both Committees. Indeed, the Head of the Unit, Marc De Feu, is a Committee of the Regions official. The Unit is one of the Committees’ engine houses, maintaining and improving our buildings and the equipment within them. It has a major budget and is frequently involved in tendering processes and it has in its ranks a number of specialists. The Unit is also in the front line of the Committees’ successful efforts to win the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme award. I used the metaphor of a car. The driver does not worry all the time about the state of the engine and the functioning of the gears and the brakes. Indeed, drivers tend mostly to take these things for granted, for they are ‘out of sight and out of mind’. But it is only thanks to these colleagues that we, European Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions, can drive our ‘cars’.