"The Corridors of Brussels" - the reflections of an insider

Wed, Aug 2nd 2023 at 12:40 pm - 2:00 pm

Jo Goodburn gave a behind the scenes picture.

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As the United Kingdom struggles to adapt to life outside Europe following the 2016 Referendum result, the Club enjoyed a fascinating reprise of how Europe and its institutions really operate, given by Jo Goodburn, a senior civil servant, who latterly worked for the European Council in Brussels, the very heart of the European Community. Jo gave a clear outline of what the various European institutions do and how the European Council interacts with the European Commission and the European Parliament. She highlighted that the European Council which comprises the heads of state of each country in the European Union formerly met in the country of its President of the time. This was eventually deemed an unnecessary extravagance given that the Presidency changes every six months, so the purpose-built Europa Building, located in Brussels, is now used as its permanent home. Staff working for the Commission number around 33,000, a figure not much greater then the number employed by the local authorities in and around Glasgow, thus dispelling the myth about European bureaucracies.

Also interesting to hear was how new laws and regulations are enacted: everything passes through a rigorous process from the working parties of the ten institutions, to the European Council and then to the Parliament itself. When passing through parliament individual MEPs can play an important role, special praise being given to the late local MEP John Purvis whose expertise in banking and finance was invaluable. Jo also touched on the voting system: while complicated, it had been devised to ensure there was broad acceptance of any changes by as many member states as possible. All changes to rules and legislation require detailed scrutiny from the lawyers of each country to ensure that they would be effective and capable of enforcement in each jurisdiction. In all Council matters the importance of translators was apparent. Everything has to be translated into 33 languages. As a result, humour and colloquialisms had to be avoided at all costs as these do not translate well. This excellent speaker was thanked on behalf of the Club by Mervyn Blank.