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As an ancien of fifty years standing I was very pleased to be invited to attend the Closing of the Simone Weil Promotion 2017/18, albeit by livestreaming.
It was a most impressive, and in many ways inspiring, ceremony. It took place, appropriately, in St Walburga's church as:
During the French Revolution it was desecrated and used as a Temple of the Law and the Godess of Reason.Right order.
I'm sure I will be forgiven if I offer some reflections comparing today's ceremony with that of fifty years ago. In fact, I don't remember such a ceremony then. I suspect it was a simple one in either Dijver or Sint-Jacobsstraat. I do have some memory of the mayor welcoming us to Brugge at the beginning of the Promotion (Comenius) in the town hall.
So clearly my first remark must be that this was a lot more pomp and ceremony than in my day. Also we were only about fifty students while there are now hundreds.
I gather that it is only in recent years that the ceremony is livestreamed in closed session. This is a great idea and, as the Rector said in his speech, it allows parents and connected persons all over the world to tune in. And I do mean all over the world as students now come from all over. In my day it was Europe, including Central and Eastern Europe, Canada and USA. Clearly it was not restricted to EEC (EU) Member States as were it so neither I nor the British would have been there (nor the Danes, thank you Terkel).
The Rector's speech was nicely pitched. There was no overt reference to federalist ideology as there would have been in my day. Instead it instanced a college mindset which while it might have been assumed to be pro-EU, was simply described in terms of embracing diversity, reaching across borders, rigour in analysis and effectively being true to one's (better informed) self.
The Rector, rightly, stressed the value in today's world of sane & informed commitment and decision making. In an environment of rising populism, where simplistic solutions are proposed for complex problems, the College is hopefully contributing to progress and stability, rational thought and action, and commitment to enduring values, leading to a better life for all. He recalled echoes of an earlier time when the outcome of toleration of trends such as those about us today was Flanders Fields.
The Rector also, rightly, touched on privilege. Students were privileged to have had the opportunity to have participated in the academic year at the College in all its aspects, many of which were absent in my day. He also stressed the obligations that came with such privilege. Parents may have made sacrifices to send students to Brugge. Governments, as in my case, provided scholarships, and the Belgian Government and the City of Brugge contributed to the College, and chairs and prizes were sponsored by a host of organisations and individuals, from both state and private sectors.
All this meant that fees only covered half the cost of keeping a student in the College of Europe for the academic year.
The Rector made sure to thank all those who collaborated in making the academic year a great success. In the course of this he appeared to (inadvertently ?) reveal that all the kitchen staff were female. But the bottom line is that he made sure to include them.
I understand that for many years now students may keep the email address given to them during their study year and that students who graduated before this facility was introduced can apply retrospectively. I don't think I'll take the College up on this one as I already have a profusion of email addresses.
However, the Rector did make a reference that caught my attention. I gather students of the College are now automatically made honorary citizens of Brugge. Wasn't around in my day and I would certainly be interested in retrospection here while I am awaiting my Légion d'Honneur from the French Government which should surely arrive any day now.
The President of the Anciens Association spoke of how the new graduates were now part of a very wide community all of whom are available to help each other. She enumerated some of the services provided directly by the Association and wished all well as they embarked on their next stage in life.
We then had a musical interlude from a young Armenian man who I took to be one of this year's students. Not my kind of music but he was very well received and could well do with having a shot at the Eurovison at some stage.
There followed a raft of prize givings. Most of these were sponsored and were for theses which drew high praise from the sponsors for their innovation and rigour. I have no problem with sponsorship provided it does not inhibit current students or anciens from criticising the sponsors in the course of their work where this is called for.
The award above is from the town of Strasbourg and that is the Mayor of Strasbourg presenting it. He made a revelation, in the course of a very positive speech, which I will not repeat here for fear it would get him sacked on his return home to Strasbourg.
Prizes were sponsored by public authorities, official bodies, trade associations, and companies in the private sector. The one above is from Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant.
Google not only sponsored two prizes but they also endow a chair at the College: College of Europe Google Chair in Digital Innovation
A very sad but positive aspect of sponsorship arises in the case of anciens who have been well regarded but who have died prematurely. Fellow Promotion members club together to sponsor a prize or a scholarship. There was more than one example of this in the current ceremony.
If I remember correctly, this lady was presenting a prize in memory of her husband, an ancien, who had died. She made a point of stressing his generosity and asked those graduating to always be generous in their dealings with others. I may have picked it up wrongly but I think she may have been an ancienne herself.
The Italian Government had sponsored prizes for the best Italian students. If the Irish Government had done the same in my day I'd have won them all, me being the only Irish person in the Promotion.
This pair were introduced as student reps and they had both advice and compliments for their fellow students.
However there seems to have been a wider range of student reps overall and they have their insignia of office - the sashes I presume. I think the most representations we ever made was to give out about one of the questions on the exam paper on the then Rector's book L'Idée Européenne.
I must say that during the Rector thanking various people and the awarding of prizes, the vibes coming from the student body seemed very positive to me, which suggest a good Promotion.
There was even a student choir. No small achievement when students are only passing through for a six month period. I must say they acquitted themselves well on the day.
Full marks to Angela O'Neill and her team for a flawless piece of organisation. Take a bow y'all.
All stand for Beethoven's Ode to Joy aka the EU "National" Anthem.
Next year's Promotion will take its name from Manuel Marín González.
You can follow up on this post with details and video now posted on the College's own site.
Irish friends, in particular, may wish to read the Irish Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald's, address at the opening ceremony of the Jean Rey Promotion in September 1983.
It is an interesting reflection on the state of play of the Union then and of Ireland's priorities and also our perception of what was required to advance the process and support the exclusive right of initiative of the Commission and not let it be subverted by excessive calls for unanimity in voting in the Council, or completely bypassed by the European Council, the legal base for which was not clarified at that time.
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