Are we in Brussels or Strasbourg, boss?

Yesterday evening I and my Director of Finance raced to Zaventum and flew down to Strasbourg in time for a spot of supper. This morning at eight we met with our (Finnish) Vice-President, Seppo Kallio, at the European Parliament’s headquarters building. At eight-thirty we met with the Parliament’s rapporteur on the (2011) budgets of the EU’s institutions, Frau Helga Trüpel, accompanied by a gaggle of officials, and by nine-thirty we were on our way back to the airport, after an amicable and frank exchange. By midday we were back in our offices in Brussels. Flying visits can hardly get more flying than that. Still, it was an entirely worthwhile trip. The Parliament’s rapporteur has a particularly important role to play this year, since we are now in the post-Lisbon world of a single reading, followed by a conciliation procedure in which the ‘other institutions’, such as the European Economic and Social Committee, will not be able to defend themselves directly. All the more reason, then, for preparatory political dialogue.