Two down in head count

Date: 16/01/1997

The European Commission has launched 1997 with a commendable display of budgetary restraint, environmental awareness and egalitarianism. For that is what last week's coach trip to The Hague for presidency talks with the Dutch amounted to.

The top brass and their advisers all boarded a 7am bus from the Breydel, including President Jacques Santer himself. The only exceptions were those who could justify taking cars because they were travelling to Holland from elsewhere.

But exactly how many of the Santer team took part in the all-day meeting with Dutch ministers in The Hague? Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok told his post-meeting press conference: “We held a very intensive discussion with almost all the Commission one member was not present.”

Exhaustive investigations by Entre Nous have, in fact, revealed that two Commissioners were not present Messrs Joo de Deus Pinheiro and Yves-Thibault de Silguy.

The latter was attending the regular monthly meeting of the EMI council. Pinheiro's whereabouts are not clear.

So which one was it that Kok noticed was absent? And which did not register on the Dutch recognition metre?