No sweat for cyclists

Date: 01/05/1997

Efforts to persuade more Commission staff to get out of their cars and on to their bikes for the daily commuting run are not being helped by Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, who has decided his responsibility for personnel and administration stops short of authorising showers in the building.

Liikanen has rejected a plea from a biking official who reckons his morning pedal leaves him too sweaty for the daily round of inter-office networking.

The Commissioner responded to an e-mail memo by pointing out that nobody in the Commission had access to showers. So that's all right then.

Enterprising workers can always get round these little problems, however: Sir Leon Brittan's spokesman, for example, advises cycling “in a regal way” to avoid building up a sweat.

Alternatively, become a Euro MP and enjoy full shower facilities, or join the Finnish representation, where the first fixture installed was a sauna.