‘Jovial veteran’ heads north

Date: 18/04/1996

It has taken nearly nine months, but the Commission has finally chosen a boss for the delegation office in Oslo.

The old incumbent Nye Hughes left last August for Canberra and Nico Wegter, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek, was widely tipped as a possible replacement.

But after much toing and froing, it has been confirmed that Nico is far too valuable to his Commissioner to be posted north. Instead, British Commission official John Maddison is packing his furlined parka - the Oslo job also covers Iceland.

Maddison, who has been in the Commission for 22 years, will be able to draw on years of experience in dealing with the Norwegians when he takes up his new post on 1 May.

One of his first Commission tasks in the 1970s was to negotiate duties on processed food products with EFTA countries. Following enlargement in 1995, he was instrumental in agreeing tariff arrangements for Norwegian fisheries products in the wake of Swedish and Finnish accession.

The three years Maddison spent learning Danish 20 years ago has already helped him translate one Norwegian newspaper's description of him as a “jovial Commission veteran”. He is now embarking on a crash course in Norwegian to see what else they are saying about him.