Case of mistaken identity?

Date: 02/10/1997

Regular readers of European Voice will be aware that Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker has called on four 'wise men' to come up with some original employment-creation ideas ahead of November's special jobs summit.

Three of the four are readily identifiable: former European Commission President Jacques Delors was the brains behind the famous White Paper on growth, employment and competitiveness; Robert Reich, US President Bill Clinton's first labour minister, oversaw a period of impressive economic growth during his time in office; and the head of the association of German savings banks, Horst Köhler, has long experience of the workings of his country's economic institutions.

But the fourth Euro-employment guru is proving to be somewhat of an enigma. According to the Luxembourgers, he is none other than Professor Robert Manning, an expert on employment policy at the highly respected London School of Economics (LSE).

On paper at least, Professor Manning would seem to be the ideal man for the job. But there is one slight problem - he doesn't appear to exist.

“We don't have a professor Robert Manning working here,” a bemused LSE press office told Entre Nous this week. “We do have an Alan Manning, though, if that's any use.”

This second Professor Manning appears to fit the bill, but even he is not entirely sure whether he is indeed the 'fourth man'. “The Luxembourgers asked me a while ago to produce an executive summary on employment issues, but I haven't heard anything from them recently. I've tried e-mailing them but haven't had any reply yet,” he said.