Back to Brussels Blog homepage
An aroma of hard work and metallic coffee fills the air of Brussels
December 4, 2008
No one can complain that France, as it completes its six-month spell in charge of the European Union, isn’t extracting every last drop of blood, sweat and tears from the officials and diplomats based in Brussels and EU national capitals.
A recent meeting on climate change and energy policy, attended by deputy ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member-states, started at 10:00 on a Friday morning - usually the quietest day of the EU’s working week, when it is not unknown for some staff to slip away for an early weekend. At French insistence, this meeting did not end until a bone-creaking, ghost-eyed 6:00 on Saturday morning.
Old-timers in Brussels calculate that Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, has staged more EU summits since July 1 than any previous leader in the bloc’s 50-year history. What’s more, there are rumours that he won’t be satisfied even after the last scheduled summit of France’s EU presidency wraps up its work in Brussels on December 12. Diplomats are bracing themselves for a possible final French summons at some point before December 31.
All of which, from the point of view of your average hard-working Eurocrat, underlines the importance of having easy access to a good coffee machine to help you stay awake. It’s just as well, then, that the French aren’t holding their meetings in the European Commission headquarters.
For twenty newly installed, state-of-the-art coffee makers have just been hurriedly withdrawn from the Commission HQ after an employee discovered his coffee was contaminated with extraordinarily high levels of nickel. How much was spent on the machines? About 100,000 euros.
Indeed this has been a marathon of a Presidency, one where the rest breaks have been substituted by sprinting and weight lifting, in Brussels terms. Looking around at exhausted French officials I don’t know if it is a sustainable pace over the long term but the achievements are an admirable contrast to the ‘thin spin’ of the last UK Presidency.
Perhaps it serves best to highlight the need for an end to the 6-monthly Presidential rotations and a new rulebook for Europe.
Posted by: Central Scrutiniser | December 5th, 2008 at 11:32 am | Report this commentThis behaviour is typical of big country presidencies. It happens because they have bigger public services and more ‘troops’ to send over the top. They are no more successful than the smaller targeted efforts of presidencies with more limited resources. They just tire everybody out.
A lot of froth but very little coffee!
Posted by: J.L. | December 7th, 2008 at 8:18 pm | Report this commentHELLO TONY BARBER,
Can you tell us please when is the credit crunch to take away your useless job!
Is incredible in such economical environment to waste money in cinical comments.
Regards
Posted by: EC | December 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm | Report this commentDear Tony Barber.
Can you tell us please when is the credit crunch to take away your Job?
Regards
Posted by: EC | December 8th, 2008 at 12:38 pm | Report this commentPr. Sarkozy and P.M. Gordon Brown really work hard, they are trying , thanks to them.
Here is a detail for them : In the last days, a new report came out in the USA : ” Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism” by Senator Graham and Rep.Talent, and then we find out that some life samples of pathogens like the 1918 Influenza virus have been shared with other countries !!! why ? why do we share these deadly viruses with other countries ? could the EU find out exactly what happened ? ….if people don’t get sick, Pharmaceutical companies don’t sell medicines, so since we are human, are we to expect a new artificially altered gene of these viruses, fungus and bacteria to show up to drum up some business ?
Posted by: financialtools1@gmail.com | December 8th, 2008 at 10:53 pm | Report this commentI wonder how the worker discovered the nickel in his coffee?
This is interesting in light of last year’s rumor regarding the amount of money spent on cellular phones and “phone training” for certain Commission officials. The level of unintended transparency in the EU institutions is rather impressive, and maybe a good thing in light of the democratic deficit.
Posted by: Linda Margaret | January 5th, 2009 at 6:27 pm | Report this comment