Farewell, Julien....

In a recent post I wrote about how I had met a young and very active blogger, Julien Frisch. Julien was a perceptive and at times caustic critic of the European Union’s policy and legislative processes, but he was above all a European democrat, seeking to bring light where there was shade and to encourage discussion and debate where there was little or none. What made Julien’s activity even more remarkable was that he blogged anonymously; ‘Julien Frisch’ was a pseudonym. You can read why ‘Julien’ chose to blog pseudonymously and why he decided to stop here. His act has introduced me to a new term; cyber suicide. There is literary and sci-fi potential in this. Indeed, I am sure that somebody, somewhere, has already written a story on the theme. At a dinner party in the States I was asked why I was blogging. I explained that I wanted to humanise the role of Secretary General and also the ‘Eurocracy’. It is the reason I finance this blog privately and the reason I write about much more than ‘work’. It is also the reason why, I am clear in my mind, I will in my turn commit ‘cyber suicide’ the day I am no longer Secretary General. In the meantime, though, I would like to salute ‘Julien Frisch’ for having maintained such a lively and active blog. I am sure we’ll hear more from the man behind the blog in the very near future.