50 YEARS EUROPE

Today is the 50th anniversary of EUROPE.

Roman Treaty

On March 24, 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany, signed the Rome Treaty. This established a European Economic Community (Commun Market).

One of the most important persons participating was Paul Henri Spaak. He was thePrime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Foreign Affairs. His role in the creation of the EEC earned Spaak a place among the Founding Fathers of the European Union. His dream was already at that time to create a United Europe.

In 1958 the members opened their offices in Brussels and Brussels became the capital of Europe.

This picture represents the "Berlaimont" which houses the Eurpean Commission consisting of 27 Commissioners, one from each member state of the EU supported by an administrative body of about 23,000 European civil servants. Now 50 years later we are maybe approaching this target a , but it's still not yet completed.

The European Union (EU) is now a supranational and intergovernmental union of 27 states in Europe. It was established in 1992 by the Treaty on European Union (The Maastricht Treaty), and is the de facto successor to the six above mentioned members of the beginning.

A lot of changements had therefore occured. No borders anymore, more then 90 % of the member states have the same money (Euro) and there is also a commun police, Europol (the name is a contraction of European Police Office) which is the European Union's criminal intelligence agency. Enjoying immunity from prosecution, Europol became fully operational on July 1, 1999.

There is still a lot to do, especially to change people's mentality from being only French, Belgian or German and to become a Europan French, Belgian or German. Most of the people are afraid they would loose their country's identity, traditions and their language.

Languages are the biggest barrier between the different countries and therefore also a big obstacle. If you cannot understand what your neighbor is talking about in your own city, how difficult is it then between countries !

I think the generation now, especially the older one, are not convinced about a united Europe. It will be much better in the next generation, already now there are so many youth exchanges and allow young people to open their minds learning languages and communicate between each other. They will see their part of the world in a completely different way.

But I can consider myself already as a European. Mr. Gattino is Italian, my son is a mixture and has two passports, Italian and German, we live in Belgium. My son lives with his Dutch girlfriend in Amerstam, but is domicilated in London. Mr. Gattino and I speak German together, with our son french (but he also speaks German) when we have Italian guests we speak Italian, when we have other guests usually French and when our son is here with his girlfriend we speak English. Now isn't that a European family ? And meanwhile the EU has become the largest economic entity and one of the largest political entities in the world, with 493 million people and a nominal GDP of €11.5 ($15.0) trillion in 2006. And that is already something. (Wikipedia)

If you want to read how I lived the beginning of Europe, when I had to follow my parents to Brussels a fact which has changed my life completely you can read it here

THE START OF EUROPE - I WAS FOURTEEN

The Justus Lipsius building, the headquarter of the EU Council in Brussels is a governing body that forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). The Europol building in Den Haag (Holland) Euro bills and coins

STORY N° 3 WORKING WITH MEN

here

Pookie prefers a cup of tea instead of my stories.

I worked for 10 years in an American company for textile fibres and was the Sales Assistant for Europe to three managers. An english gentlemen, with suit and tie,( mostly the same tie), always friendly and I strictly have nothing to say about him.

A very nice German, happily married and he and his wife became friends.

The third was a French and a case for a psychiatric clinic. He had 4 mistresses and a wife, and of course he thought he could add me to the group. Not only jumping on the phone to answer but also in his bed. He apparently found this completely normal. I told him that I prefer my own bed and sent him to hell and we became good friends. At that time sexual harassement didn't exist otherwise I would be very rich today !

After a while, I started to pitty the poor guy, women were flying around him like butterflies around flowers or maybe flies around something else, and he didn't do anything, they just came from alone ! (except me, where he did an effort, because he was convinced that an assistant should assist him everywhere, bed included).

Sometimes when he was on the phone with one, I was on the second phone with another and had to comfort her, justifying his absence by inventing trips or meetings. I also quickly found out that the only person he really loved was his wife. She was a very independant woman, with a very strong character, very intelligent and very beautiful. I didn't have to lie to her and probably would have refused that too. We became friends and accomplice and maintained our friendship even long after I had left the company.

With him I had not only to handle his various mistresses by phone, but he also asked me to write the answers to their love letters, which was quite difficult as I was always afraid of mixing them up. I wrote an adequate text with my typewriter (no computer at that time) and he copied it per hand. He was very happy with this solution and the women apparently were happy too. And as I already loved writing, it was OK for all of us.

The worst moments were, when he became fat up with one girl, they mostly were young and stupid and I could never understand why they lost their time with a married man ! But they all were convinced that he would leave his wife and marry them. As far as I know this only happens in very rare cases.

When the moment came to say good-bye, I had to order a huge bouquet of flowers, write a good bye letter, how much he was heartbroken to leave her, but he really couldn't divorce his wife who was a poor woman he had met (by error) when he was very young, and then there are the children, etc. etc my phantasy had no limits !

Then I armed myself with a considerable amount of tissues in my drawer and waited until they stormed into my office, usually with red noses and swollen eyes. He of course as a brave man had disappeared for a business trip.

I really couldn't feel any pitty with these girls, they just were hunting rich men and as I said, they all were not very intelligent... females, not women, there is a big difference.

I have to admit that this was a real funny period of my career.