photopol: A EUROPEAN EVENT

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Having been the first Irish student sponsored by the Irish government at the College of Europe in 1967/8 (Comenius) I am proud to call the College my alma mater. That was also my first extended period abroad and living among fellow students from a wide range of countries.

Initially, it was a terrifying experience, landing in a prestigious European postgraduate institution and coming from an Ireland that in those days suffered from a serious inferiority complex.

But the experience proved a formative one and in a positive sense, and that is why I tune in to the openings and closings of the academic year in the College since these went online some years ago.

I usually just tweet a few pictures (screen grabs) after the event, but today's opening was different. It was a very intense and emotional experience for all involved, including me, and I will go on to explain this below.

As has now become the custom, the event opened with a musical interlude. Well that is a tame description of the powerful recital from these two students. The College now has a large student body which is bound to contain at least a few first class musicians. And I hear them every year. It's amazing. There was, I think, one pianist of concert standard in my year but I never heard him play.

Rector of the College, Federica Mogherini introduced the event and the speakers. She herself brings a wealth of experience to the College, having been a Minister in an Italian government and EU High Representative in previous careers. She is clearly committed to the European project and as far as I can see very open in her dealings with the students and to new ideas.

This is a particularly intense event for her. She has, at the behest of many as she told us, dedicated the current Promotion (academic year) to the memory of David Sassoli, a former colleague and friend. He was hugely committed to the European project, and was President of the European Parliament up to his death in January 2022.

She introduced Dirk de Fauw, Mayor of Bruges. The mayor is a regular speaker at these events and was now meeting this year's students for the second time in a matter of weeks, having already welcomed them to Bruges at a reception in the town hall.

He stressed that Bruges considered it an honour to have the College located there, now with the addition of the Diplomatic Academy, an instution fought for by some of the major cities of Europe. He also stressed that it was an honour for the College to locate in such a beautiful and vibrant city. "A world city pocket size" as he put it

He reminded the students that "at the end of the year you will become citizens of Bruges, Honoris Causa" - his exact words in English. I first heard this some years ago and went on to make a fool of myself seeking retrospection. You can follow up the sad and embarrassing saga here.

The Governor of West Flanders, of which Bruges is the capital city, Mr Carl DECALUWE, went on to draw attention to the sucess of his region in modern times. He saw it as a hub in Europe with borders with France and Netherlands and the sea, recalling its position as a great trading region in the past. I was particularly glad to hear this recital as, when I was there in 1967/8, the region was only getting to its feet after years of subsidiarity to Wallonia. In fact I was there during the "language wars" and for all I know I may be breaking the law referring to them as that, now that the region is firm in its own identity and living, I hope, peacefully with its neighbours.

We also heard words of encouragement to the students from the Rector of the Natolin campus of the College in Poland, Ms Ewa OSNIECKA-TAMECKA. She advised the students to make the most of what would become a very special year in their lives, bringing with it maturity, responsibility, and comradeship.

Rector Mogherini then spoke about David Sassoli, patron of this year's class. He seems to have been an admirable character both in his politics and at a personal level. Mogherini's voice had both affection and sadness and at one stage for a brief moment she lost it. When she recovered she said "I knew this would happen".

Well, some audiences would react with an embarassed silence, but today's student audience reacted with a standing ovation. Quite unexpected, but totally in keeping with the mood of the day. Here today sincerity and empathy dominated the occasion. The kind of raw emotion and honesty you'd encounter in rehab.

It is a tradition at these events that student representatives, a male and a female, say a few words. These can be bland. But not today. The male was a Ukranian national, Dmytro Kazakov, and he took the audience with him. A strong speech, a moral stand, and giving no quarter.

The female student representative, Emilie Meyer, took a different tack. She concentrated on a warm up for the keynote speaker who was to follow. That speaker was the current President of the European Parliament, immediate successor to David Sassoli and an alumna of the College, Roberta Metsola.

The way we used to use past exam papers, Emilie had sought out the yearbook of Roberta's year, and based her welcoming remarks on Roberta's entry. Well done.

For Roberta, as for Federica, this was clearly an emotional occasion. As Sassoli's successor and friend, and an alumna of the College, she was totally engaged. Like any good parliamentarian she was also well able to take the ball on the hop and, reacting to the aforementioned yearbook, broke away from her script to tell some stories about her own stay in Bruges. The Rector later recommended that students not follow these examples in their entirety.

Roberta's script was a serious one. She stressed the importance of the smaller member states in the European project, she's from Malta. She recalled two unsuccesful attempts to get elected to the European Parliament and stressed the positive role of politics when at its best. I was reminded of the words of Samuel Beckett and G K Chesterton on the importance of failure and how to react to it.

My take away from her speech was don't be afraid to go into politics if you have something you want to achieve and, as a citizen, vote, vote, vote. If you want your politicians to succeed they have to have a credibly wide mandate.

Incidentally, I was intrigued to learn of the yearbook. We didn't have a formal one in my day and I was given the task of compiling a sort of a one when I got home to Dublin. Which I did and sent it to the College. At which point it disappeared from view never to be found. I don't know if it ever reached the College or got lost on the way. I made two attempts to find it on visits to the College but to no avail. That's what provoked me, more recently, to do a blog on my year in Bruges. You can check that out here`.