Some employers can lay a dead hand on the
initiative and individual ability of employees
– they’re clearly not desirable. In contrast, the
successful companies of the current era seem to
mostly do the opposite - they empower and enable
initiative for young people. I think that in the Irish
context that those information based companies,
Google, Facebook and so on, are taking a lead in
this regard.
A point that is highly relevant in Ireland – the
multinationals that have invested here are successful
companies, otherwise they wouldn’t be investing
and they have imparted their skill sets, and enabled
Irish workers to go off on their own and create new
businesses that are flatter and less hierarchical than
traditional companies. That’s already evident in
young people who have created their own companies
here in Ireland.
In his autobiography, Garret FitzGerald
stated that two of the traits you
demonstrated were energy and
enthusiasm. How important do you
consider them to be to any career?
Absolutely vital. Not just energy, enthusiasm (and
I’m not attributing this to myself) but – positivism.
Nobody ever achieved anything with a negative
approach. You always have to look to the bright side
and also have to have the capacity to take risks –
career risks.
With regard to the things that you have
accomplished in your career, what are
you most proud of?
The things that I’m proudest of are, as European
Commissioner for Competition: the liberalising of
telecoms, air transport and being part of the team
that brought about the completion of the single
market (the “1992” project).
Subsequently I was asked by the EU Council of
Ministers to do a report on the internal market – the
Sutherland report.
I had one year as education commissioner in which
I introduced the ERASMUS student exchange
programme – which I am very proud of.
I see the WTO as being an extension of precisely
the same integrationalist logic that drove me
to a passionate belief in the European Union,
except it went from regional integration to global
integration. So the big achievement of my life was
the completion of the Uruguay Round and setting
up the WTO. That undoubtedly was the highlight
for me in what I’ve done. So it was the public part
of my life that gave me the most satisfaction and it
continues to do so now in various areas.
Is international trade liberalisation an
area that you are still involved in?
Yes it is. I have recently been appointed by
Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Cameron, the
Prime Minister of Turkey and the President of
Indonesia to co-chair a committee – a high level
working group on the completion of the Doha
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