To the EESC’s Communication Group meeting this afternoon, Chaired by our Vice-President, Anna Maria Darmanin, to listen in on an exchange of news with the European Commission’s new Director-General of Communication, Gregory Paulger. He eloquently described how, in this austerity period, with crisis measures being decided and implemented rapidly, there was a danger that the messenger would be punished for the message. This meant a change of tactics for the European Commission and its communication activities, with less emphasis on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ and more on the ‘why’. I came along because, as a former Head of Communication, I am genuinely interested in how we institutions face up to the common communications challenge. But I confess I also came because I first worked with Gregory in the 1980s, when he was in the Private Office of Jean Dondelinger and for a period after that we were colleagues in the old ‘DG X’ and worked closely together when he was Head of the Private Office of Commissioner Vivianne Reding and I was a Commission Head of Unit pushing through a little programme proposal called Erasmus Mundus… Without Gregory’s help and support, it would never have seen the light of day.