To the Bozar this evening for a concert given by the Geawandhausorchester Leipzig under the energetic baton of Riccardo Chailly for a great double bill of Shostakovich and Brahms. First up was Shostakovich’s first violin concerto, and we were once again treated to the sublime gifts of Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos. We have had the good fortune to hear him twice in the recent past at the Bozar, once playing Beethoven’s violin concerto and once playing Sibelius’s violin concerto in D minor. He seems able to adapt himself effortlessly to different composers and styles and here he demonstrated once again both his adaptability and his skill and passion in interpreting a modern masterpiece. The second half of the bill was Brahms’s third symphony, and here the orchestra and the conductor came into their own. It was a wonderful evening’s entertainment.

The EESC’s conference on democracy in Europe continued with three working groups focused on ‘spaces for civil society in the European public sphere’, ‘key players to achieve a European common good’, and ‘rethinking solidarity in a society of individuals’ , with the workshop moderators reporting back to the plenary. Then the conference was closed with a keynote speech by Lousewies van der Laan. In addition to an illustrious political career, Lousewies is deeply involved in promoting democracy throughout the world and she spoke also from that internationalist perspective. Compared with undemocratic deserts elsewhere, she argued, Europe’s democratic garden is flowering. Yes, it needs constant tending and ‘gardeners’ but we should not forget that in relative terms our democratic systems are healthy and function well. She argued for a more voluntarist and pro-active approach from the bottom upwards, whilst also arguing against a form of intellectual snobbery that ‘doesn’t trust the people because the people might get it wrong’. And she spoke pointedly about ‘Europe’s knack of taking the right decisions, but in a way that alienates people.’ We should lead by example, she concluded; work together, and work through our democratic systems by mobilising our politicians and political parties as well as civil society organisations. Much food for thought!

All of today, Civil Society Day, has been devoted at the European Economic and Social Committee to a conference on democracy in Europe from the perspective of civil society. The conference was jointly opened by EESC President Staffan Nilsson and the Liaison Group co-chair, Jean-Marc Roirant. The fascinating opening session, wittily moderated by European Voice  editor Tim King, heard thought-provoking keynote speeches from Professors Lars Trägard and Stijn Smismans and an open discussion with European Parliament Vice-President Isabelle Durant, the Secretary General of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Katsuji Imata, the President of the Platform of European Social NGOs, Conny Reuter, and EESC Various Interests Group President, Luca Jahier. It is impossible to sum the morning’s work succinctly, but two recurring themes were the relationship between the individual, the state, and civil society (is there an ideal? are all societal models necessarily different as an adaptation to their environment and cultural development?) and the relationship between representative and participatory democracy (are both necessary? can one replace the other? what is the ideal relationship between them?).

This was a red-letter day for the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Two hives were installed on the roof of our flagship Jacques Delors building. And our new VIPs (Very Important Pollinators) were let out to explore their new surroundings. All of the aggression has been bred out of these industrious new guests (as you can see). Once the colonies have reached their full size each hive is expected to produce some forty kilos of honey. But this initiative is more about the bees and educating everybody to the fact that they, a vital part of agriculture, are in alarming decline. As so often, Shakespeare says it all (though he got the gender of the monarch wrong):

For so work the honey-bees,/Creatures that by a rule in nature teach/The act of order to a peopled kingdom./They have a king and officers of sorts;/Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,/Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad,/Others, like soldiers, armèd in their stings,/Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds;/Which pillage they with merry march bring home/To the tent-royal of their emperor:/Who, busied in his majesty, surveys/The singing masons building roofs of gold,/The civil citizens kneading up the honey,/The poor mechanic porters crowding in/Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,/The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,/Delivering o’er to executors pale/The lazy yawning drone./Shakespeare, Henry V, I. 2

To the new Pompidou Centre in Metz, to see the amazing wall drawings of Sol Lewitt. I am sorry, but for as much as the MUDAM struture is a success, the Metz Pompidou is an ill-designed missed opportunity. Little thought has been given to visitor flows or their animal needs (just one toilet per floor, a tiny bar and restaurant apparently tacked on as an afterthought, a tiny and disappointing museum shop, and gale-force draughts at the entrances to the exhibition spaces) and whilst some of the exhibition spaces and views are good and the wooden roof structure creates some interesting perspectives, there is an overall impression of jumble and afterthoughts. It’s a shame and a missed opportunity because the architects didn’t have to think about their surroundings and truly had carte blanche. Perhaps that was the problem. The Sol Lewitt exhibition more than makes up for the disappointment. Eighty drafters, including trained professionals from Lewitt’s studio as well as young artists from the Lorraine region spent two months drawing thirty-three of these extraordinary creations on especially prepared walls. If you don’t know about Sol Lewitt, please read on below. This exhibition is probably a unique chance to see so many of his black-and-white drawings and is well worth the trek. If you go, don’t miss the film at the end. Fascinating! Continue reading

This morning we drove on to the old coal town of St Avold. Towards the end of the second world war this much-battered town served as a reception and processing centre for displaced people and refugees seeking to return to their homes. As such, it plays a cameo role in my magnum opus and I wanted to get a feel for the place. Nearby is the Lorraine American Cemetery, the largest second world war American cemetery in Europe. Some 11,000 American servicemen are buried here. These war cemeteries are a powerful and poignant visual argument against war, as well as a reminder of the sacrifices made by so many. Who could not be moved, gazing out at these massed ranks of the dead, most of them obscenely young, with lives before them that would never be lived?

Yesterday we drove alongside the Saar, passing Saarbrücken and the distinctive industrial architecture of the Völklingen Ironworks (a UNESCO world heritage site). We overnighted at a hotel in Grosbliederstroff (on the Saar) and this morning I ran some 14 kilometres along the Saar and the canal that runs parallel with it (training for the 20 k!). This particular part of the world is a jogger’s paradise. I ran around Sarreguemines but for the rest the path and its surroundings are idyllically pastoral, with just a few relics of the bygone industrial age dotted about. All that history, learnt at school, came flooding back, for this region was at the heart of the European problem. From 1920 to 1935 the Saar Basin was governed by the United Kingdom and France under a League of Nations mandate. The region had its own currency (the Saar franc) and postage stamps. A 1935 plebiscite returned the area to Germany. From 1947 to 1956 it was a French protectorate. A 1955 referendum returned it to Germany. Why so much history? Because nation state boundaries (and linguistic frontiers) were blurred and the region was a major producer of coal and steel. When I was researching a book into the Council of Ministers I discovered that a lot of the early ministerial discussions were about the rights of bargemen, since they traversed national frontiers with the rivers and canals. There are still a few of the old industrial barges moored on the Saar’s banks. The other topic on the ministerial agenda was the creation of a European University Institute. It was only finally created in 1976, and then through an intergovernmental convention. Those ministers and diplomats and officials slogging away in countless meetings could hardly have imagined how far the European integration process would come, and how fast!

To Luxembourg, to the MUDAM (the museum of moderm art), an impressive building designed by I.M. Pei (he of the Louvre pyramids). I am not an unconditional fan of this particular architect, but his MUDAM building is beautiful and, in its use of light and pale stone and its insertion into an existing urban structure, up there with the Acropolis Museum and the Ashmolean and British Museum extensions. Among the permanent exhibits I much liked Su-Mei Tse’s Many Spoken Words (a garden fountain spouting black ink). There is also a design section, sporting the works of Maurizio Galante and Tal Lancman. This owl, Barbagianni (2011) is one of the exhibits. For the record, the face, with an inscutable regard, is of porcelain and the feathers are hand-sewn tissue with black and white pearls. It is both kitsch and somehow profound – or does that sound kitsch?

Our hosts, the Irish National Economic and Social Council, had laid on a short cultural trip for us this afternoon, and we experienced one of those chance privileged moments that sometimes come along unexpectedly. We visited Sandy Cove, Forty Feet and the Martello Tower where James Joyce very briefly stayed (for just six days). The tower is now a museum and the curator told the tale of Joyce and his host, Oliver St John Fogarty, wonderfully well. Afterwards, we climbed up through the tower and visited the spaces that were forever immortalised by Joyce in the opening passages  of his first great novel, Ulysses. This would have been privilege enough, but when we got back to the museum space who should we see but Seamus Heaney, Nobel Literature Prize Winner and one of the greatest living poets! It was a magic moment. The tale of how Fogarty’s tower (he was the one paying the rent) became immortalised as the Joyce tower (in Ulysses it is Joyce the narrator who pays the rent) is one of the all time great stories of literary revenge.

The Secretaries-General of the national Economic and Social Councils and the European Economic and Social Committee concluded their deliberations in Dublin this morning. In my intervention I spoke about the perverse effects of the crisis (with the risk of economies and expediency turning into permanence), the mystery of the disappearing solutions (by which I meant the Lisbon Treaty’s provisions on participatory democracy and the Europe 2020 strategy), and the paradox of austerity (by which I meant the risk, basically, of throwing the democratic ‘baby’ out with the austerity ‘bathwater’ – in particular, the risk of weakening the network of economic and social councils and the consultative function at precisely the moment when the institutions, and particularly the Commission, start to recognise its worth). These are difficult times and we must all find ways of doing more with less, but the consultative function and civil dialogue are of more importance now than they have ever been.