At the end of a long, rich and eventful week, I was interviewed by the BBC’s Shirin Wheeler. You can see the results here. I’d be interested to know what you think. Most of the questions were tough but the interview and, just as importantly, the editing, were scrupulously fair.
Lots of tough questions Martin but also many good messages passed across…the Channel and not only
I particularly appreciated your reference to the fact that EESC Members are not like MEPs having an office in Brussels: these people come a few times a months to Brussels and bring in a very fresh view from the local organisations to EU level. There are indeed offices of organised civil society representations in Brussels, with their own added-value to member organisations, and the EESC cooperates closely with them, but those often rely on a Brussels-based small secretariat. The EESC Members come directly from the national/local level and bring in an incredible “brassage” of experiences: some of them are very well-known at national level, others are just at the beginning of their careers, some are giving voice to youth organisations concerns whilst others are representing elderly people’s views, employers and employees, big business and SMEs, East and West, North and Sothern experiences are all brought in directly from the source and carefully taken into account in the debates on the broad variety of EU policies tackled by the Committee.
Those people don’t belong to the full-time Brussels-based policy community, this is an extremely important value-added, I believe, in a time when there is more than ever a pressing need for Europe to ‘go local’. But unfortunately the broad public is still not very aware of this. It is also thanks to this “courroie de transmission” effect that the EESC potential could be used even more to bring forward fresh ideas in the blue Brussels European sky thinking…
Keep up the good work!