Dishing the Derk

In less than a fortnight sometime European commissioner Frits Bolkestein will be back in town for the launch of the latest book by a long-time member of his private office, Derk-Jan Eppink, which goes under the title of ‘Life of a European mandarin'. Eppink, a former journalist, had striking success with his 2004 book ‘Belgian Adventures' but because in those days he was still in the Commission he steered clear of EU matters and concentrated more on Belgium. Now he has left the cabinet of Siim Kallas and moved to New York and feels free to lift the lid on the Commission. European Voice gets a mention, being described as “widely read in Brussels EU circles”. “For reaching a wider public, the mandarin will try and get his message in the Financial Times; for internal intrigue, he will use the [European] Voice.”
Not everyone escapes so lightly. Commission officials, commissioners and MEPs must do some detective work to find mocking references to their colleagues since the book has no index and mostly people are referred to only by their first names. But Margaritis Schinas, Petra Erler, Lousewies Van der Laan, Henk Post, Anna Diamantopoulou and Brian Simpson are among those not hard to identify. All of which might leave a few problems for Eppink's erstwhile colleagues: Kallas has responsibility for administrative affairs and personnel, but up until now the policy on kiss-and-tell memoirs by ex-officials has hardly been tested.