The Head of Secretariat of the EESC’s Various Interests Group, Marc Beffort, is a serious marathon man. When I write ‘serious’, I mean that he thinks little of running 100 kilometres (I’d love to post his lyrical account of that experience, if he’d let me). To give you a feel of the man, his current aim is to run three marathons, back to back. At tea break during the conference, we had a chat (we had both been out doing early morning jogging in the park behind Sofia’s national football stadium). Marc had told me that he wasn’t going to do the Brussels 20 k unless he could start from the front because he was going to run with a blind man. But when I looked up the results, he had run in a time of 1 hour 18 minutes. So, came my puzzled question, had he run alone, then? No, came the reply, he had run from the front with the blind man, Théophile Nsengimana, and then he told me the most wonderful bitter-sweet story which absolutely deserves a wider audience. Théophile was born in Rwanda. He was blind from birth. When he was four his parents sent him to a big hospital to have his condition examined by the country’s experts. Whilst he was there, his family was massacred, victims of that dreadful genocide. An uncle looked after the young boy. Ten years later, he developed skin cancer. His uncle sold up everything and bought tickets to Europe, to Belgium, where he hoped his nephew could be treated. Théophile’s treatment was indeed treated with some success (he is currently ‘in remission’), but his uncle was unable to adapt to his new circumstances and committed suicide. Théophile was adopted by a Belgian (Mons) family. His ambition is to become a paralympic athlete. He runs very, very fast, but he can’t run on his own. Somebody has to run with him – the runners are literally tied together – and talk constantly to him, warning about every possible obstacle. In the Brussels 20 k it was Marc, who told me it was quite the most exhausting thing he had ever done because, despite running so fast, he had to talk all the time. Now, that in itself would be a wonderful story (and I dare anybody not to look at that photo without shedding a tear – metaphorical at least). But Théophile has not stopped consulting eye specialists. One advised him that they could take out his natural, sightless eyes and put in false eyes so that he would be aesthetically more attractive, which understandably depressed him. But now another, in Liège, has identified the fault as lying not with his eyes but with the nerves that connect his eyes to his brain, and one of his eyes could yet enable him to see. This autumn he will undergo an operation and have an implant placed in his cheek. There is an eighty percent chance of success. Who could not wish this twenty two year-old man the best of luck? He surely deserves it. (And you can see a brief interview with Théo at 8.45 into this piece.)

The President of the Bulgarian Economic and Social Council, Lalko Dulevski (on the right in the picture), laid on a special treat for the President of the EESC’s Various Interests Group, Luca Jahier, this lunchtime, and I was privileged to be invited along. The treat was a guided visit to one of Sofia’s most ancient surviving structures, the Sveti Georgi Rotunda, which dates from the 4th century AD, and the Sveta Nedelya Cathedral. As our guide, Dafina Bashinakova, told the much-battered Rotunda’s story – Roman church, Ottoman mosque, mausoleum and, finally, Orthodox church – I was reminded of an earlier post about the reincarnations of buildings. In the Rotunda’s case,surviving fragments of frescos denote each reincarnation, including a tiny fragment of Arabic script. Sofia has always been a crossroads, as the concentration of religious buildings in this area – mosque, synagogue, Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals – illustrates. In the Sveta Nedelya Cathedral Dafina led us to the velvet-robed mummified body of Sveti Kral Stefan Milotin, a medieval king of Serbia whose miraculous healing powers attract Serbian Orthodox pilgrims to this day. The guided tour was a moment of great privilege. Thank you, Lalko!

Today I am attending a conference in Sofia organised jointly by the Various Interests Group of the European Economic and Social Committee, the Bulgarian Economic and Social Council, the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the European Commission’s Representation in Bulgaria. The theme, youth education and employment, could not be more relevant to a member state where unemployment among the 15-24 year-olds stands at 32 percent. The European Union average for the age group is 22 per cent – one fifth! – and in Spain and Greece the figure is over 50 percent. Apart from the fact that this horrible situation is in direct contradiction with the policy ambitions of the Union’s Europe 2020 strategy, it is simply morally unexceptable and socially unsustainable. So what can be done? After introductory speeches notably from the President of the Bulgarian Economic and Social Council, Lalko Dulevski (who is also an EESC member), the President of the Various Interests Group, Luca Jahier, and the President of the Bulgarian National Assembly, Tsetska Tsacheva, the conference moved onto the meat in the form of two keynote speeches delivered by the Bulgarian Minister for Labour and Social Policy, Totyu Mladenov, and the European Commission’s Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Koos Richelle. The conference then broke into thematic seminars on the role of universities, policies and measures to prevent early school leaving and supporting growth and jobs through the modernisation of higher education systems. Like yesterday’s conference in Brussels, it’s impossible to summarise such a rich series of discussions, but Koos Richelle lucidly stressed the articulation between country-specific recommendations made in the context of the European semester and the Europe 2020 strategy’s targets. (In my poor picture, the television cameras are gathering for the ministerial speeches…)

Wherever I go, I always pack my running shoes. If I am going to run, it’s got to be early so, despite landing at midnight, I got up early enough to get in a good run. Having got to know Sofia over several visits, I have traced out a preferred circuit which goes out beyond the Levski Stadium and around the Borisova Gradina Park. When you run early in the morning – pre-rush hour early – you see the sides of cities that you wouldn’t see otherwise. This morning was particularly agreeable because it had that pre-heat freshness that comes at the dawn of a hot day – particularly agreeable given that we had flown out of a rain-lashed Brussels ten hours before…

All day today the European Economic and Social Committee and, in particular, its ‘ECO’ Section has been holding a high-level conference on the theme of a possible fiscal union in Europe. The conference, opened by our President, Staffan Nilsson, and chaired by the ECO Section President, Michael Smyth (Various Interests Group, United Kingdom), truly was at a high level. Indeed, at times it felt like a really good and deep university seminar, except that many of the guest speakers were not just experts but practioners. Thus, we had Frank Moss, a European Central Bank Director; Antonio Vitorino, President of Notre Europe (a think tank), Enzo Moavero Milanesi, the Italian Minister for European Affairs, Sylvie Goulard, MEP, Professor Stuart Holland, Coimbra University, Debora Revoltella and Raymond Torres, Directors at the European Investment Bank and the ILO respectively, and the conference culminated with a key-note address from Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Finance Minister and President of the Eurogroup. It is simply impossible to summarise the rich debates and discussions. One ‘soundbite’ stuck in my mind. Sylvie Goulard, recalling the Marshall Aid Plan and American leadership in that period, called for a ‘leadership of generosity’. Meanwhile, in the margins of the conference, EESC President Staffan Nilsson released a press statement calling for a fiscal stability union backed by Eurobonds. Then, for me, it was quickly off to Zaventum for the evening flight to Sofia.

This afternoon I attended the opening session of a conference hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee at the initiative of Carmello Cedrone (Employees’ Group, Italy) and organised by the Italian Labour Union (UIL) on the theme of the Mediterranean as an opportunity for the European Union (‘Il Mediterraneo: un’occasione per l’Unione Europea’). The event, organised to mark the opening of the UIL’s Brussels representation, was a good example of the way the Committee consciously sets out to be the house of organised civil society. The meeting, opened by EESC President Staffan Nilsson, was addressed by, among others, Bernadette Ségol, Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation, Laszlo Andor, European Commissioner for Social Affairs and Inclusion, and Gianni Pitella, Vice-President of the European Parliament. The conference itself was addressed to the opportunities the Mediterranean region offers in the specific context of growth and employment and how its full potential can be better realised, notably through more articulated policy-making.

From the conference I went to our Bertha von Suttner building to participate in an ‘EMAS’ initiative of our medical service. Colleagues are regularly encouraged to take the stairs. By so doing, they not only save energy (when going up) but also get exercise and so keep fit. To encourage them, the medical service laid on a nurse at the bottom and a doctor at the top to take pulses and oxygen levels before and afterwards and a free fruit juice for those who were thirsty. In the picture my favourite nurse, Caroline, who has an uncanny ability (that I have repeatedly witnessed personally) to give injections without causing the slightest bit of pain, is measuring my blood pressure before the stairs. I opted to go all the way up (climbing ten floors).  Modesty cannot prevent me from reporting that my heart didn’t even break into a trot.

To the ninth meeting of the EESC’s Europe 2020 steering committee first thing this morning, chaired by Joost van Iersel (Employers’ Group, Netherlands). President Staffan Nilsson opened proceedings before the Committee went on to consider national reform programmes and the European Commission’s country-specific recommendations, potential synergies between the strategy and other flagship initiatives, and external aspects of the strategy. In his speech, Staffan Nilsson pointed to the growing convergence of opinion among policy makers throughout the globe on the need for a growth strategy before then reminding participants that Europe 2020 was already, and would remain, an important part of any sustainable growth strategy for the European Union. In September, at the President’s initiative, the Committee will be holding a special conference designed to remind and mobilise civil society actors in particular about the need for the fullest possible involvement in making the strategy a success.

This evening I accompanied EESC Vice-President Jacek Krawczyk, who is Chairman of the Committee’s Budget Group, to the Berlaymont headquarters of the European Commission for a meeting with Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski. On the agenda were the Multi-Annual Financial Framework, where the Committee’s May plenary session adopted an opinion that is very supportive of the Commission’s position) and the 2013 budget process (where the Committee has proposed a draft budget that follows the Commission’s guidelines). Public opinion is understandably sensitive both on the general issue of the Union’s finances and the more specific issues of the institutions and personnel but the member state governments are also, and just as understandably, sensitive about the continuation of ongoing investment programmes (which tend to be back-loaded and need management). Jacek Krawczyk, who was co-rapporteur of the EESC’s opinion on the Multi-Annual Financial Framework, reminded the Commissioner of the Committee’s political support as the Commission navigates these complicated waters.

At lunchtime to the Conservatoire Royale for the final examination of our singer friend, Pauline Claes. I have attended quite a few thesis defences in my time (and sat a couple myself), but this is the first time I have attended a final music exam. I found the setting quite intimidating. The students sing from a bare stage to the half-empty (though always handsome) concert hall, with the examiners dotted around, taking notes. Pauline, a mezzo soprano, sang Monteverdi (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Handel (Alcina), Schumann (Frauenliebe und Leben), Duparc (La Vie Antérieure), Massenet (Werther), Mozart (La Clemenza di Tito) and Rossini (La Petite Messe Solonelle). In addition to her piano accompanist (Pierre Féraux), she was accompanied on some of the pieces by a cellist, two violinists and a clavichord (the Monterverdi), a clarinet (the Mozart) and a quartet (the Rossini). Oh, yes, and she also sang Bolcom’s ‘George’ (there’s a version of this cabaret song here). And at the end of it all she came out with a well-deserved Grand Distinction. Phew! As I hurried back to work I felt exhausted from the stress of it all but the music was great, just great. Well done, Pauline!