This afternoon the European Economic and Social Committee was happy to host the European Parliament’s new President, Martin Schulz, who had travelled back from Strasbourg to be present. In his speech, the President ranged across the challenges facing the European Union but remained resolutely optimistic and characteristically determined in his outlook. He also delivered an important post-Lisbon Treaty message to the EESC. This is, he declared, ‘a new beginning in the very necessary dialogue between the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee and organised civil society.’

Somebody sent me the picture accompanying this post because they thought it was nice. I remember the moment well. The European Economic and Social Committee’s plenary sessions are generally squeezed into two half days. Exceptionally, this session, which had a particularly heavy agenda, was extended to three half days. There are almost always surprises, requiring rejigging of the agenda and thinking on our feet. Among the surprises this time were new security control measures at the entrance to the building, creating considerable delay, and a small fire in a fat fryer in the kitchen back in the Jacques Delors building. The Committee’s staff rose magnificently, as always, to the challenges. In the picture, the President and his Secretary General are debating how to handle several opinions so as to maximise the use of the interpreters without risking running out of time. If we were a national body, working in one language, there would be less pressure. But we can only work with the help of our brilliant interpreters, almost seventy of them providing us with coverage in twenty-two languages. Indeed, part of the difficult art of managing plenary sessions is to calculate how much of their time we will need and making sure that we stick to that, no matter what surprises pop up on the day.

This morning the European Economic and Social Committee’s plenary session debated and adopted three inter-related opinions on: GDP and beyond; the proposal for a Financial Transaction Tax; and the European Union’s system of own resources. The author of the first two opinions was Stefano Palmieri (Italy, Employees’ Group) – in the picture – the third was authored by Gérard Dantin (France, Employees’ Group). The FTT debate was also taking place at around the same time in Strasbourg, at the European Parliament. All three opinions are strongly argued. Palmieri drew a convincing parallel with the stance Europe had taken over climate change. Somehow, the Union’s credibility is also bound up in veing seen to have found the right answers to what has occurred over the past three or four years.

Faithful readers of this blog will recall that the European Economic and Social Committee recently awarded the prizes in its annual video challenge (see my post here). This afternoon Vice-President Anna Maria Darmanin, who has particular responsibility for communication matters, presented the winners to the Committee’s plenary session. It was good to see the three winners again on a larger screen and all won enthusiastic rounds of applause. As the Vice-President explained, what was most encouraging about the entries was their basically positive message about Europe and the European Union. At the previous day’s Bureau meeting Anna Maria introduced a new presentational video about the Committee. You can see it here. Thanks in no small part to the efforts of members like Anna Maria, the Committee becomes ever younger and more dynamic, it seems to me.

Resolutions are a relatively rare instrument for the European Economic and Social Committee. This is because its basic working method is the patient construction of consensus. Nevertheless, there are occasions when the Committee is able and willing to react rapidly. At its February plenary session, for example, the Committee adopted a resolution about the economic and financial crisis and its consequences on the eve of the European Council meeting. This afternoon, by a very large majority and with no votes against, the Committee adopted a resolution against discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin. The resolution begins ‘On 8 February 2012, the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom) launched a website inviting people to express their grievances about people from Eastern and Central Europe working in the Netherlands. In a resolution of 15 March 2012, the European Parliament roundly condemned this denunciation website. As the representative of organised civil society, the European Economic and Social Committee denounces this action and the xenophobia and racism it embodies. The EESC calls on the Dutch people and the Dutch government to take decisive action against this initiative, which can no longer be tolerated.’ The rest of the resolution can be found at the link above.

In what has been something of a budgetary day, this afternoon’s meeting of the Bureau of the European Economic and Social Committee unanimously adopted the Committee’s draft 2013 budget. This was in addition to the usual pre-plenary session preparatory work. I think the Committee can be proud of the result. For the second year running the Committee has – in a fine consensual and collegial fashion -adopted a budget which, at 1.9% (the predicted rate of inflation), is effectively zero-growth. To adopt a modest budget is, of course, the only right way to behave in the current climate of austerity and public spending cuts, but it is not easy to achieve and can result in unintended consequences, particularly because we have to use an estimate about the inflation rate which may ultimately be out by several percentage points. This is particularly important in relation to our rental payments, which are index-linked. Last year, for example, we respected a predicted rate of inflation around 2% for the draft 2012 budget which, for the Belgian rental market, turned out to be nearer 4%. As a consequence, we (both Committees, since buildings are part of our ‘Joint Services’) are having to find additional economies within our existing 2012 budget to make sure that we respect our legal obligations. The problem is in large part caused by the fact that we have to undertake the planning exercise so far out from the year in question. Coming back to the 2013 exercise, though, all credit is due to the Chairman of the Budget Group, Vice-President Jacek Krawczyk (Poland, Employers’ Group) and the Committee’s rapporteur for the 2013 budget drafting exercise, Madi Sharma (UK, Employers’ Group).

The show, as they say, is not over until the fat lady sings, but this morning the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee voted to grant the European Economic and Social Committee and its Secretary General discharge for the financial management of its 2010 budget. The discharge is a classic democratic procedure of parliamentary oversight and, as such, a vital part of the Union’s democratic and financial fabric. Each EU institution and agency has its annual accounts audited on the basis of random sampling by the European Court of Auditors, which reports on its findings to the Parliament. The Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee then considers whether to grant discharge or not – the alternatives being to postpone or even refuse. The EESC has a small and entirely administrative budget. The largest parts of the budget are devoted to salaries and buildings, so the potential for major mishaps is relatively small (no massive programmes or public procurement procedures). But, still, the obligation for sound and efficient financial management and maximum probity is always there for us all. This year’s positive result is particularly due to the fine and unstinting efforts of the Committee’s Budget Group Chairman, Jacek Krawczyk (Poland, Employers’ Group), and our rapporteur for the discharge, Peter Clever (Germany, Employers’ Group). The ‘fat lady’ will sing on 9 May, when the Parliament’s plenary will vote, though the result in the Budgetary Control Committee is normally a good indication of the way things will go.

We’re in a plenary session week once again (they seem – to me, at least – to come around so fast). We had the early management board and pre-session meeting this morning and this evening the Enlarged Presidency (the President, Vice-Presidents, Group Presidents and the Secretary General) met to go through the Bureau and Plenary Session agenda in order to smooth out the processes and ensure overall success. If a Secretary General may venture an opinion, despite being an entirely informal body, the Enlarged Presidency is now such an established part of the landscape both because it is necessary and because it works. The dynamics are now well-established, including ‘whispering interpretation’ provided by two ever-excellent volunteer translators. Looking around the table, I say to myself that the meeting is roughly the same size as the original High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community and the first European Commission. It gives an idea of just how intimate those first meetings, chaired by Jean Monnet and Walter Hallstein respectively, must have been.

Part of the authenticity of the membership of the European Economic and Social Committee is derived from the fact that most members work for just a few mandates before handing over to fresh blood. On the logic of ‘once a member, always a member’, the Committee supports an Association of Former Members which meets twice a year. Today the Association met in the Committee’s headquarters and was addressed by a series of speakers, starting with EESC President Staffan Nilsson, on the theme of ‘How can Europe transition to an institutional and policy framework that provides for the combination of economic growth, jobs, sovereign debt containment and a robust financial services sector?’ As Secretary General I also had the pleasure and privilege of addressing the Association, to which former officials may also belong, on the subject of ‘Progress and Challenges’. As I told them, I am now in the fourth year of my mandate and so can indeed look back and see where progress was achieved, as well as forward to the challenges ahead. But my basic message was that the longer I have worked at the Committee the more I have become convinced of the unique authenticity of its members, volunteers for the cause, both feet firmly planted in the real world and, very politely, telling truth to power. In the picture, by the way, is former EESC President Alfons Margot who, at a spritely 90 years of age, honoured me with his presence.

This evening we gazed with admiration on a pretty alignment of three celestial bodies in the night sky: a very bright Venus, a more distant Jupiter, and a young Moon. There is much in the media about this rare realignment that will also see Venus traverse the disk of the sun, an event that occurs just twice every four hundred years. They were all so bright, and this in the city centre, that I felt almost like getting into the car and driving to somewhere really dark to gaze on their full beauty. But, then, I would probably have had to drive a very long way… Postscript: At this site you can see a wonderful photograph by somebody who did manage to find somewhere dark.