Corbett’s obsession

Former MEP gets a new job.

Sometime MEP Richard Corbett (pictured) has not cut a happy figure since he lost his seat as a in the European Parliament elections in June. He was forced to go back to his previous employment – working in the secretariat of the Parliament. He was an official there for many years, later becoming deputy secretary-general of the Socialist group, before being elected to the Parliament in 1996.

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But after 13 years as an MEP, working for other MEPs cannot be much fun. So no surprise that he has found himself a new job and one which gives him scope to indulge his obsession with the EU’s constitutional arrangements: he is joining the private office of Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council. The two have known one another for years – personally, not professionally.

Other members of the ten-strong team include Odile Renaud-Basso, a French national who was director responsible for the economic and finance committee in the European Commission. She will be deputy head of his private office. Luuk Van Middelaar, a former journalist with Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad and a member of the Dutch liberal VVD party, is to be Van Rompuy’s speechwriter.

Presiding over the private office is Frans van Daele, a long-time adviser to leading Flemish Christian Democrat politicians, including Wilfried Martens and Jean-Luc Dehaene. He was successively Belgium’s ambassador to the EU, to the US and to NATO. This loyal service to the Belgium state was rewarded by his being made a baron, which should ensure that Van Rompuy’s office is never outranked by Catherine Ashton.