This morning, as part of my series of meetings with the staff of the European Economic and Social Committee, I met the logistics directorate. These colleagues are, collectively, another of the Committee’s engine houses; think buildings, IT, the print shop, security, public procurement, and so on. Without them we simply couldn’t function and so I began by sincerely thanking them all. The simple fact of the matter is that everything works, and works well (notably, thanks in large part to these colleagues, the Court of Auditors rarely makes any comment in its annual reports on our financial and technical management). The metaphor I used was of a driver and a car. The driver (me, mostly) does not constantly check whether every single part of the mechanism works, and many of those parts are in any case invisible. And yet the driver is unconsciously reliant on all parts of the mechanism and not just those parts of which he is aware. I was delighted when, in the ensuing question-and-answer session, the metaphor took on a life of its own. We segued from cars to the driver’s responsibility to checking the tyre pressure to Nigel Mansell to Michael Schumacher to the Americas Cup to rowing and conductors and orchestras. The common denominators in all of these metaphors were team work, shared skills and achievement. There is another powerful reason for thanking these colleagues (like the translators); they work in the so-called ‘joint services’, which means that many of the colleagues I was addressing are not ‘mine’ (they are employed by the Committee of the Regions). And yet both Committees are loyally and excellently served. Which is why I honestly believe that I am a very lucky Secretary General. To engage in such path-breaking inter-institutional cooperation is one thing. For it to be quite so successful is another and I am convinced that we are setting a good example to the other institutions. Participants in the meeting will understand the picture and know what this link means! It was 1984 and the lionheart won sixth place in the end.

This evening, in a Brussels bar, I met myself or, at least, I met an actor, an amateur dramatist, John Howard, who is going to play me. To explain, a few years ago I lost my mother and then, less than a year later, my father. I had recently completed an Open University course in creative writing and, being constantly loaded down with notebooks (as all serious writers should be, we were taught), found myself taking copious notes throughout the ordeal of my parents’ declines and deaths. I think it was, in part, my way of dealing with the traumatic experiences. Since then, so struck was I with the profundity of those moments that I have wanted to do something with my notes and with my memories. Recently, a friend who is active in The English Comedy Club here and who had seen one of my pieces, asked me if I could produce some monologues for a Christmas production entitled ‘Families aren’t just for Christmas.’  So I wrote up three episodes involving me and my father. They cover the period when he first fell seriously ill, his last Christmas dinner, and his last evening at home before I accompanied him to the hospice. And now somebody, John, is going to act my monologues and so is going to be me and will relive those experiences. This evening we went through the texts together for the first time.  Amateur thespian John may be, but my first impression is that he is much better at being me than I am. Fascinating – and deeply touching.

Meanwhile, back in Brussels, the EESC’s Labour Market Observatory was meeting under the chairmanship of Krzysztof Pater (Various Interests Group, Poland) and was honoured to host Belgian employment minister Joëlle Milquet who had come to help the Observatory elucidate on the paradox of companies encountering difficulties in filling their vacant posts in a time of high, even very high, unemployment. Such labour market inefficiencies are deeply frustrating phenomena but admit of no easy solutions.

By the time I arrived back in Brussels late last night my President was still in the air, heading for Istanbul, where today he participated in the Euro-Mediterranean Economic and Social Summit, which brings together economic and social committees of the European Union and other European countries and the Mediterranean basin. The conference addressed two basic themes: responding to expectations in southern Mediterranean countries and the need to step up the role of civil society in the processes of change that are now under way. The European Economic and Social Committee was strongly present in the various debates. Within the EU, economic and social councils and committees can play important flanking roles for parliamentary democracies. Outside the EU, where parliamentary democracies may not yet be established, or well established, civil society organisations and civic dialogue can play vital transitional roles in consolidating strong civil society cultures and hence also the basis for strong democratic cultures.

This lunchtime the Secretary General sang. The EESC’s training and career development sector organises occasional lunchtime conferences with guest speakers addressing themes of general interest to our officials. Today, we were happy to host Paul Strickland, Chairman of the Clear Writing Task Force in the European Commission, and I had the pleasure of introducing Paul and his theme. So I recalled how, when I was studying philosophy at university, my tutor in symbolic logic began a tutorial by singing a song. You can hear the song here. Once he had sung it (and today I sung the first verse of this sweetly saucy ditty), he asked us to study and represent in symbolic form the first sentence; ‘all the nice girls love a sailor’. His point was that the phrase was an example of structural ambiguity: was one lucky sailor loved by all the nice girls? did each nice girl have her own sailor? or was it more that for each nice girl any sailor was lovable? Language is our basic instrument and yet we must frequently communicate from or to languages other than our own. Translators and interpreters are there to help us, but in the first place we can help ourselves – among other things, by avoiding inadvertent ambiguities. I finished with a nice quote from Abe Lincoln; ‘Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.’

After the excitement of the Conference, in the afternoon there was a short formal meeting of the Bureau itself in order to deal with standard business related to the Committee’s work. The enlarged Presidency also met during the lunch break to decide formally on the winners of this year’s edition of the Committee’s Civil Society Prize (announcement and prizegiving scheduled for the Committee’s 7 December plenary session). Then it was back to the airport and back to Brussels. It was great to be back in Warsaw.

Pawlak and Nilsson

After a chilly jog in the Lazienki Krolewskie park, to the Chancellery of the Prime Minister for the Conference on ‘Sources of Sustainable Growth after the Crisis’. After the Conference opening key note speeches, by the EESC’s President, Staffan Nilsson and the Polish deputy Prime Minister, Waldermar Pawlak, two rich and fascinating panel discussions took place: one on the economic and environmental aspects, and one on the employment and social aspects, of sustainable growth. The latter was kick-started with a keynote address by Polish minister Michal Boni. The panels were replete with economists, trades unionists, environmentalists and other experts, including a number of the Committee’s own members and, of course, the discussions overlapped considerably (they also overlapped with the themes discussed in The Hague the previous week). How can member states rebalance their budgets whilst also stimulating economic activity? Is there a conflict between growth and sustainability? How best to stimulate innovation and creativity? Is ‘Europe’ no longer enough? How to ensure solidarity – between individuals, population groups, member states and generations? How to respond to the demographic challenge? How to make sure that ‘green’ jobs are decent jobs? I don’t have the space here to report on the many elements of response given, but there was a sort of measured optimism that the current crisis will be overcome in a wise way. Which is just as well for, as President Nilsson put it in his opening address, ‘if we don’t believe in our future why should anybody else?’

Today I chaired the traditional Monday morning management board meeting and then hot-footed it to Zaventum for the afternoon flight to Warsaw. Tomorrow the European Economic and Social Committee’s Bureau will be holding a special conference, under the aegis of the Polish Presidency, on the theme of ‘Sources of Sustainable Growth after the Crisis.’ This evening our hosts, the Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, spoilt us wonderfully with a welcoming reception at the Water Palace or Lazienki Palace (1689), the summer residence of the last king of Poland and one of the few architectural gems of the city to have more-or-less survived the terrible ravages of tha last war. That would have been great but the extraordinary icing on the cake was a masterful piano concert, performed by Kayo Nishimizu (here’s a video of her in action on another occasion) of no less than nine Chopin masterpieces, culminating, of course, with the ‘Polonaise’. My job provides moments of unforgettable cultural privilege for which I will be forever grateful: for example, my time alone with Magritte’s Empire of Light; the Escher museum in The Hague just last week; and now, this evening, Chopin at the Water Palace in Warsaw. Unforgettable and simply sublime.

I know I am asking for trouble by posting this picture of a hitch hiking student whom I snapped at one of the city’s main motorway exits. After that conference about intergenerational solidarity and all the gloomy news about youth unemployment last week, is he not a metaphor for Europe’s young? The smile tells another story, though. Would drivers stop? And where would they take him, especially if he asked to go nowhere in particular? I wonder where he is now… In any case, he was clearly having fun.

To Liège at long last to visit Santiago Calatrava’s brilliant Liège Guillemins station building. It is truly a work of art and I imagine that it is now, among other things, a set piece for art students studying perspective. The genius of the piece is in the use of light and space to create an organic surface that makes the steel, concrete and glass structure seem light and airy. Even on this freezing, foggy Sunday morning a gang of photographers and enthusiasts were scattered about the structure, taking pictures and making sketches. Indeed, it’s difficult to resist the temptation to take pictures of the structure. Every angle, every position, brings a fresh combination of shapes and forms. Sheer brilliance. My misgivings about the scale of the structure and its imposition on the urban fabric of the city were dispelled when our Liègois friends explained that the city is gradually undertaking a major regeneration project that will see perspectives opened up towards the Meuse. Liège is one of two candidates for the 2017 edition of the International Exposition and this station surely makes a fitting entrance to the city. With the city about to lose a further 3,000 steel jobs, one can only wish it luck.