Private words about public figures

Date: 26/10/1995

Extracts from the controversial diary which will now not be published:

Strasbourg, 14 June 1995: “Afterwards it was my turn to sit in the Parliament during the voting. That is deadly dull because you have nothing to do but sit there. It takes an hour and sometimes, as today, one and a half.”

On Audio-Visual Commissioner Marcelino Oreja's attitude to the Television without Frontiers Directive: “It is hard to find out what he actually means.”

Brussels, 15 February 1995, after one unnamed Commissioner fiercely defended national interests in a discussion on agriculture: “All the talk about independence from the country you come from is unfortunately sometimes only window-dressing.”

On deal-making between Commissioners: “The informal contacts are at least as important as all meetings and many deals are made 'off the record', like the time when Emma Bonino mentioned in passing that we could make an environment deal if she got something in return.”

On Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann, claiming he hardly ever attended Commission meetings (a claim since refuted by the Commission, which said he had attended 29 of the last 35 meetings): “By now I am surprised when he is actually there. It is a shame that he does not show up that often because he seems like a very competent and interesting person.”

On a dinner attended by all five female Commissioners in Bjerregaard's apartment where they discussed the women's conference in Beijing: “We also discussed whether we could get Flynn to abstain from being the Commission's representative, but apart from Emma (Bonino), who apparently was willing to try, none of us saw this as a realistic possibility. He is determined to go despite the fact that we find it rather embarrassing that he is to talk on our behalf.”

On meeting German Chancellor Helmut Kohl: “I did not get any impression of the man, he was not paying attention at all.”

On French President Jacques Chirac and the nuclear tests: “They are absolutely meaningless and it is a typical example of how new government leaders needed to show their muscle so people realise how strong a man they have elected.”

On the relationship between Commission President Jacques Santer and Chirac: “The relationship between Chirac and Santer is bad, first and foremost because Chirac does not care about Santer and treats him superficially.”

On Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez: “He still seemed like an interesting man, but there was no energy in him, there was no political will. Now Spain was taking over the presidency, but he did not want to use it to do anything. All in all, it is difficult to find any leaders who want anything, besides maintaining the status quo and being, for example, prime minister.”