Since December last the European Economic and Social Committee has had a new policy setting out procedures for dealing with psychological and sexual harassment at work within the secretariat. Our human resources colleagues organised a lunchtime information session with an excellent guest speaker, Katja Janssens, a psychologist and psycho-social prevention adviser at the Council of Ministers. Although I was theoretically on holiday, I happily returned to participate in this session so as to underline the management’s commitment to the new policy at all levels. One of the more interesting aspects of the new policy is that it recognises the subjectivity of the harassee whilst maintaining objectivity about the alleged harasser. (Within an international, polyglot administration bringing together so many different cultures the potential for misunderstandings is high.) But, as with all the best policies, the basic spirit of the policy is prevention, through awareness raising and mediation, rather than ‘cure’ (formal procedures).