Power cut!

It started off as a normal plenary session week: early morning management board meeting, followed by the ‘morning mass’ (the pre-session coordination meeting). At lunchtime, gazing out towards the Parliament, I noticed wisps of white smoke emerging from the small park between the Committee and the Parliament. About half an hour later a massive power cut hit the whole European quarter. The fire was in an electricity sub-station and the power cut continues as I write. My counterpart in the Committee of the Regions, Gerhard Stahl, and I immediately met together with our logistics director, Cees Bentvelsen, and crisis management team in order to monitor the situation. All of our buildings are equipped with back-up batteries and generators, so there was no danger to staff, and our servers have back-up systems (the wi fi is still working, which is why I can write this post now). But the normally well-ordered preparatory work for tomorrow’s Bureau meeting and the subsequent plenary session has been badly challenged. I write ‘challenged’ because our ever-excellent and ingenious colleagues in the registry are quietly confident that they have been able to keep things more-or-less on track. About half an hour ago, in the continued absence of electricity, Gerhard and I gave instructions for colleagues to go home. On a Greek ferry this summer we participated in an ‘abandon ship’ exercise – an interesting experience! – and this afternoon was a little similar. We will treat it as a free lesson. (The photograph shows our head of security informing assembled colleagues.)