Wanted: an EESC secretary-general...

One of the EU's five secretary-generalships is about to fall vacant. The leaders of the European Economic and Social Committee decided at a meeting this week that it would not be renewing the five-year contract of Patrick Venturini, the 57-year-old Frenchman, when it ends in a year's time. Venturini has headed the secretariat of the institution since 1998 and before that spent seven years as a member of the private office of Jacques Delors, when he was president of the Commission. People who keep score of this kind of thing will notice that although France has its ex-ambassador Pierre de Boissieu as deputy secretary-general of the Council of Ministers, the French do not hold any of the other top jobs: Harald Rømer at the European Parliament is a Dane, Catherine Day at the Commission is Irish, Javier Solana at the Council is Spanish and Gerhard Stahl at the Committee of the Regions is German. So can the French find anyone appropriate to take Venturini's post next October?