Daniel Jacob, 1950-2011

There was terribly sad news today of the loss of a fine Belgian colleague, Daniel Jacob, Deputy Director General of Human Resources in the European Commission. After serving at the Belgian Bar he joined the European Commission’s Legal Service. I first got to know Daniel well in the 1980s when, as bright young thing, he served in the private offices of, successively, Stanley Clinton-Davis and Bruce Millan. Then, in the late 1990s he became Neil Kinnock’s Deputy Head of Private Office just as I was writing Neil’s biography. He would later be Philippe Busquin’s Head of Private Office, before stints in DG Administration and Personnel, then DG Research, then DG Administration and Personnel again. He had excellent English, compendius knowledge about British politics, forensic intelligence and a great sense of humour. I interviewed him about six months ago, with a view to updating the biography. Since there was nothing he liked better than swapping political anecdotes (never salacious), we had a great time. Daniel’s first specialisation was labour law and he was intimately involved in the current reform process. We have lost a very fine colleague.