The potatoes and corn have long since been harvested and now the farmers are taking advantage of the current dry spell to harvest their sugar beet. They are working far into the night, their harvesters brightly lit up, with spotlights all around, making them look, from a distance, like passing ships in the Channel. The farmers dump the beets in mini-mountains at the edges of their fields, briefly transforming the landscape. Soon, the motorways will be full of lorries transporting the beet to the refineries. But for the moment the momentary mountains stand in splendid isolation…

This evening we watched Kurosawa’s 1950 classic mystery crime thriller, Rashomon. The basic plotting device is brilliant in its simplicity. Four people – a woodcutter, a samurai, his wife and a notorious brigand – give their accounts of the samurai’s murder (the samurai gives his own account through a spirit medium). Each account is different and each is contradictory, so the four must all be lying. Where lies the truth and, in the end, does it matter? (Kurosawa himself spoke about exploring ‘multiple realities’.) This basic story is bracketed by exchanges between the woodcutter, a priest and a commoner as they sit beneath a ruined gate (Rashomon), waiting for a rain storm to end. The commoner sees through the woodcutter’s lies (he deduces that he stole the murder weapon, a fine dagger) but the latter redeems himself in the eyes of the priest by taking into care an abandoned baby (yes, he stole the dagger, but in order to feed his six children). I am no expert on cinematography but Kurosawa’s triangulation of characters, the reflected lighting and his use of long, dwelling close-ups add to the impression of inner tensions. Through his emphasis on subjectivity and the unreliability of ‘factual’ evidence Kurosawa reminds us forcefully that no experience can be the same; we all live in different realities.

The dog took me for an early morning walk today, around my favourite fields near Berthem, which is quite close to Leuven. Dotted about the fields and the lanes are a number of second world war bunkers – presumably built as part of a defensive cordon around Leuven or maybe even an early line of defence for Brussels. In any case, as I hope the picture shows, nature is steadily reclaiming these objects. Indeed, they blend in so well now that you almost don’t notice them. Rather than blowing them up and carting them away, the authorities have left them to be reclaimed. But now, as occasional signs declare, they also serve another purpose – bat sanctuaries. I suppose what has happened is that as we have steadily restored our churches and given them fine, tight-fitting roofs, many of the bats’ traditional roosting places have gone. I like nature’s pacific and ecological solution!

This evening the Committee organised a special commemorative event in memory of its former President, Mario Sepi, who died all too soon on 10 October at the age of 69. Led by the current EESC President, Staffan Nilsson, tributes (among others, from the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano and former European Commission President, Jacques Delors) were interspersed with, inter alia, the personal memories of the President of the Employees’ Group, Georges Dassis, one of Mario’s two Vice-Presidents, Irini Pari, and the former head of his private office, Andrea Pierucci, and these were followed by immensely touching tributes by his widow and his son. It was impossible not to be moved.  In the picture Staffan is holding up perhaps Mario’s greatest achievement as EESC President; the Committee’s ‘Programme for Europe’, a manifesto timed to coincide with the 2009 European elections campaign.

Anne Sonnet

This morning’s reflections were animated by a keynote address from an OECD economist, Anne Sonnet, specialised in youth employment. She had a pretty grim message to deliver. Youth face a much higher unemployment risk than adults. Youth unemployment increased sharply in the economic crisis. Youth belonging to the so-called NEET (neither in employment nor in education or training) category represented a particularly difficult challenge since, by definition, they were beyond easy help. Moreover, a range of country-specific barriers made across-the-board measures difficult to identify. On the other hand, identifying the common challenges was easy enough and, she insisted, the key among those was improving school-to-work transitions.

Our discussions in The Hague continued this morning on how we economic and social committees and councils, particularly as consultative bodies, might help engage younger generations in the socio-political and economic processes of our societies. There is a sense – polling evidence, including Eurobarometer, strongly confirms this – of a growing gap in the perceptions of younger and older Europeans about what is best for society. Younger people sense that as demography increasingly tilts our societies towards the old, so their needs and views will be neglected or undervalued. The primary risk is clear: the dwindling relevance to the young of traditional intermediate structures, where younger Europeans will increasingly be outnumbered. At the same time those same younger Europeans will increasingly be relied upon to finance the pensions and services of the older majority. Worse, they will continue to be among the most vulnerable to the consequences of the current crisis. This issue of intergenerational solidarity will become increasingly pressing, hence our discussions about the contributions we might make to ensure that the young feel involved, relevant, and heard and that they continue to engage in the socio-political and economic structures and processes that are the stuff of governance, both at member state and European level. For the EU, as one participant pointedly observed, the consequences are already being felt; his children feel less European than he does.

This evening our Dutch hosts received us regally (literally) in the former Winter Palace in Lange Voorhout where the much-loved Queen Mother Emma lived and which now houses a permanent exhibition of the work of M.C. Escher. This is the only complete exhibition of all phases of Escher’s life and includes all of his best known work as well as many other illustrations of his developing interests and techniques. (I have illustrated this post with a picture I took of one of Escher’s cahiers.) The exhibition made me realise how strangely ignorant I was about somebody whose iconic images are quite so well known. Early on, Escher became fascinated with the geometry of Moorish tiles in the Alhambra and toyed with impossible combinations of differing perspectives (notably of Italian and Corsican landscapes). Optical illusions were, in a sense, the more basic emanations of Escher’s intuitive and visual mathematical skills (he had no formal training) that maybe achieved their highest expressions in his tessellations and treatments of infinity. ‘I try to show,’ said Escher, ‘that we live in a beautiful and orderly world, not in formless chaos.’

We have had a rich afternoon’s discussions. Our guest speaker, Professor Hans Boutellier, treated us to a fascinating and thought-provoking analysis of what he has termed the ‘improvisation society’. Boutellier’s recent book on the theme (alas, not yet available in translation) is meant in part, he explained, to try and understand the rise of populism. I cannot do justice to his lecture here but I’ll attempt a brief summary of his analysis. Three main developments – internationalisation, individualisation and informatisation – have had two consequences – the disappearance of solid social structures and the rise of institutional complexity, leading to a world characterised by complexity without direction. This impression of chaos creates frustration with politicians and professionals, feelings of insecurity and frustration and desires for certainty and stability, for moral direction and social order. Hence the attractiveness of the populist answers which are a) ‘safe new world’ and b) ‘the heartland’ (which Boutellier memorably described as ‘a place where things are still as they never were’. He believes that the rise of the network society is an important part of the potential response to populism. As he put it, ‘networks are not a source of complexity but a way of dealing with it.’ Fascinating stuff.

To The Hague today, to the headquarters of the Dutch Social and Economic Council (SER), for the annual meeting of the Presidents and Secretaries General of the economic and social councils and similar institutions in the member states. The twin themes of our discussions over the next two days will be; ‘engaging younger generations: the future of ESCs.’ By their very nature, our consultative, advisory bodies are constantly reflecting on how they can optimise their roles. Our Dutch hosts have consciously juxtaposed this constant reflective and renewal process with the very specific challenge of intergenerational solidarity. The network of councils (a heterogeneous collection of institutions) is deliberately loose and informal and at its best when discussing such common challenges and experiences – particularly in the context of such a timely theme.

This evening I attended an event to celebrate the European Centre for Public Affairs’ twenty-fifth anniversary but also to recognise the achievements of its outgoing and founding Executive Director, Tom Spencer, and to welcome his successor, Caroline De Cock. Tom has recently finished writing a history of the ECPA which will, I am sure, deal with far more than the organisation itself. A former much-respected member of the European Parliament, Tom has over the years treated his friends and colleagues to incisive and witty briefings about European and world developments and I very much hope these will continue.