Ernst & Young has undertaken a study of senior public sector roles across G20 countries and come up with a Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders. Public Sector Leaders are defined as non-elected senior excutives across federal or national governments.When it comes to the numbers of female public sector leaders, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom take the top three places. The United States of America, Italy, France and Germany perform favorably. South Africa and Brazil also do well.

 Here below are the results for selected EU countries:

Ulrich Beck, auteur de l’Europe Allemande est chargé de mission Allemagne à Notre Europe-Institut Jacques Delors. Ulrich Beck consacre une grande partie de son ouvrage à développer ce qu’il appelle le « modèle Merkiavel ». Selon Nicolas Machiavel, « le prince ne doit tenir sa parole donnée hier que si elle peut lui apporter des avantages ». Si l’on transpose cette maxime à la situation actuelle, cela donne : « il est possible de faire aujourd’hui le contraire de ce que l’on a annoncé hier, si cela augmente les chances de gagner les prochaines élections ».

Belgium has a population of over 10 million. 6 million Belgians speak Dutch and 19.8% of them (1.2 million) has a good to a very good mastery of German. 4 million Belgians speak French but only 6% (240,000) has a good to a very good mastery of German. There are only 73,000 Belgians who speak German as their native tongue. In Brussels, French is the most spoken language (88%) followed by English (30%), Dutch (23%), Arabic 18% and Spanish 9%.

About the German Language

Having announced that they will present a leading candidate for the Commission’s presidency and that this candidate will campaign in the EU’s 28 Member States, the four major European political parties have set an ambitious target. The challenge is that European political parties gather members from different countries with different political sensitivities. In this context, drafting a common European programme that can appeal to all party members and even all EU citizens across borders is a complex task.

What is the role that embassies and consulates can (or should) play, as the public service overseas outposts of a country, to help the real actors of economic diplomacy, the home enterprises and businessmen. In particular, is there a special role that they might play when they represent developing countries, to the extent that this is different from the role played by the diplomatic and commercial missions of rich states?

Commercial Diplomacy is diplomacy with a commercial twist – diplomacy designed to influence foreign government policy and regulatory decisions that affect global trade and investment. In the past Commercial Diplomacy concerned itself largely with negotiations over tariffs and quotas on imports.

Brussels has an established reputation as the ‘Capital of Europe’, due to the presence of the main European institutions and other international organisations. Their proximity provides enormous added value; not only for Brussels but also for the rest of the country. The significance of this presence is insufficiently valued by policymakers in Belgium and it is often considered the equivalent of ‘a free lunch'.

The EU as fuel for the Brussels and Belgian economy

1. The EU presence in Brussels

The U.S. debt is nearly $16 trillion.  According to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO), U.S. debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is now 73%, twice as much as it was at the end of 2007.

The European public is increasingly at a loss when it comes to understand decisions taken by the European Union. There is a need to rebalance forces in Brussels.  Brussels is not Europe, and the people who work here have no monopoly on European vision.

President Barroso urges MEPs to fast-track proposals on the banking union, financial regulation and completing the single market, as well as on the telecoms proposal adopted by the Commission. Ongoing negotiations on all the programmes implementing the 2014-20 budget, including agriculture and fisheries policy, must be concluded by the end of the year.