Music is another great antidote. This evening we went to the Beaux Arts to hear the orchestra in residence (the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest from Bruges) playing Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubliées, Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain (a cello concerto) and César Franck’s Symphony in D, all under the workmanlike baton of Ludovic Morlot. The soloist was 71 year-old American, Lynn Harrell. Chatting with a colleague afterwards we were agreed that if it had not been for his avuncular theatrics (humming to himself, grinning at the first violin) we would not have found the Dutilleux of particular interest. But the evening was capped by Franck’s last great symphonic work

I am not sure I would have enjoyed spending a holiday weekend with Jean Monnet – I am, to my shame, far more hedonistic when it comes to food and drink – but I nevertheless see him as an inspirational figure with a curious blend of pragmatism and vision which is, I suppose, a three-word summary of the Monnet method. Monnet began his day with a walk – particularly if he had a thorny problem to think through. I cannot manage that sort of frequency but I certainly have my share of thorny problems. So this morning the dog took me for a walk. It was beautiful sunny spring weather. The farmers were preparing their fields to plant potatoes and larks trilled and soared in the sky. In rapid succession I saw fields full of hares, pheasants, lapwings, fieldfares, heron, geese in formation, finches, tits, sparrowhawks, woodpeckers and woodpigeons. It was, as Monnet had discovered, the perfect antidote. I came back feeling that I could take on anything the day threw at me (and, indeed, it did thow quite a lot at me). And all this just a ten-minute drive out of Brussels…

Very sad news came in today of the sudden and completely unexpected death of Sukhdev Sharma, a much-loved and respected member of the European Economic and Social Committee (UK/Various Interests Group). ‘Dev’ as he was universally known, was a distinguished former chief executive of the British Commission for Racial Equality (he was awarded a CBE in 1998 for services to the community). He had since served as Chairman or member of the boards of various health authorities. At the time of his death he was Chairman of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, a position he had held since October 2007.  He became a member of the European Economic and Social Committee in 1998 and had served with distinction as a rapporteur on such themes as equality, anti-discrimination, migration and human rights issues. He was chair of the Migration Policy Group, a Brussels-based think tank, a lay member of the (UK) Employment Tribunal, and a board member of the Shaw Trust charity, the largest provider of vocational and job training to disabled and disadvantaged people. Dev was, quite simply, a lovely man. There wasn’t a bad bone in his body. The Committee – its members and its staff – is in shock and our thoughts and sympathies go out to his wife and four children. It was a pleasure and an immense privilege to have worked with him. His untimely death is a grievous loss.

CCMI Chairman Jorge Pegado Liz on the left

This morning I went before the EESC’s Consultative Committee on Industrial Change (CCMI) to wish the members and delegates well at the front end of the new mandate. The CCMI is an old stamping ground. When I was director of consultative work it fell within my responsibilities, so it was a pleasure to be back. But, as I told the Chairman, Jorge Pegado Liz (Portugal/Various Interests) and the meeting, it was also a pleasure because whenever I set foot in the CCMI I feel direct historical linkage with the first faltering steps of the European Union’s integration process in the early 1950s, for the CCMI was born out of and followed on from the old consultative committee of the European Coal and Steel Community (the Treaty on which that Community was based was for fifty years and expired in July 2002). Indeed, two of the ECSC’s distinctive flags still hang in one of the Committee’s meeting rooms.

Whilst I am on the referential stuff (see previous post) somebody had the bad idea of lending us the full six seasons set of Lost and now we are collectively hooked. It is rare for a day to go by without some at least of us seeing one episode. The scriptwriting team have drawn inspiration from so many different sources but the most obvious would surely include William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, John Fowles’s The Magus and, from the television world, the 1960s series, The Prisoner. I hugely admire the team’s ability to keep up both the delivery and the standard and their Rowling-like ability not to trip over their own trailing plot lines. And the actors deserve credit as well for creating plausible, three-dimensional characters who invariably have dark pasts and secrets that, as the series got under way, the writers probably hadn’t yet created!

We finally got around to seeing Black Swan (directed by Darren Aronofsky) this evening. Though there are some very powerful scenes and some clever dialogue, I found it overlong, self-indulgent and far too referential. Natalie Portman famously won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of an increasingly psychotic dancer. Though Portman clearly and commendably put a huge amount of effort into preparing for her role – losing weight, choreography and ballet training – the award is slightly puzzling until you see the other nominations. Given the sheer scope and scale of the project, this was effectively a shoo-in. The supporting acts, on the other hand, are strong. Vincent Cassel, as the martinet director of a prestigious New York City ballet company, effectively reprises the role of Anton Walbrook’s Boris Lermontov in Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (I warned you it is over-referential). Barbara Hershey gives a thoroughly convincing portrayal of a failed dancer turned overbearing mother, and Mila Kunis is excellent in portraying both the understudy of Portman’s character, Nina Sayers, and the sexually uninhibited creature of Sayers’ hallucinations. I have no idea how the nomination process works, but for my money Kunis could have been on the best supporting actress list.

At just before midnight I went to pick N° 1 sprog up from school. She had just returned in a coach from Frankfurt where she and her triumphant school team mates had won the biennial three-day Eurosport competition among teams from all of the European schools, from Culham to Alicante, from Varese to Karlsruhe. The teams competed in badminton, basketball, handball and the biathlon (swimming and tennis). As I drove her back home. It was as though I was sitting beside a warm stove but instead of heat she was radiating a sense of happiness derived not from any individual performance but from the team’s efforts and the team’s achievements. All right, this is a proud parent moment but, not for the first time, I also find myself thinking that when the European Schools are good they are very, very good. As the tired but ecstatic teachers and pupils tumbled out of the coach it was immediately obvious that this was an experience none of them would ever forget.

Tempering is a heat treatment technique used, particularly with steel, in order to toughen the metal. It has, notably, always been an integral part of swordmaking technique. Tempering is done by reheating the metal to just below its critical temperature. Among the positive effects of tempering the following can be noted: improved ductility and toughness; reduced cracking; and increased impact resistance. Today marks precisely the halfway point in my five year mandate as Secretary General of the European Economic and Social Committee.

With the spring rushing in it was time this morning once again for a Bike and Foot Friday, the idea being to encourage colleagues to come into work by bike or on foot by offering them a ‘reward’ in the form of a bio breakfast and some technical advice. And for me, as a biker, it was back to school with a test to see what I knew about bike maintenance (the theme of this morning’s gathering). I got it mostly right, I am glad to report, and won a plastic poncho into the bargain.

Ever since we moved into our neighbourhood some twenty years ago I have followed the same weekday and Saturday early morning ritual of buying my newspapers at the newsagent’s shop on the corner of my street. It has been my first reality check of the day. Over the years, the owner, Pascale, and her clients (for we all know each other) have – briefly, fleetingly – discussed local, national and international affairs, from the latest alleged bêtise of Prince Laurent to the state of the world economy to local crime and unemployment, and so on. Her clients are a mix of city workers of one sort or another (the shop is on a rat run into the city) and local people (there is a bus stop just outside the shop). Pascale has been much more than a shopkeeper. The postmen drop off their big sacks in her shop. She holds our big parcels for us until we can pick them up.  And, like Taseer on another corner in the same street, she ministers to her flock. We have also, inevitably, followed Pascale’s life – the sad death of her mother, her sons’ passage to adulthood, the dogs (a labrador and a basset hound), new love, and a beautiful baby and now, alas, her decision to shut up shop and lead a new life. We are all so very happy for her and so very sad for ourselves. Today is the shop’s last day and, characteristically, Pascale is offering all her clients breakfast and, this evening, an aperitif. We are all bereft. Verily, all good things must come to an end…