Ministers opt for brevity

Date: 13/06/1996

Irish Commissioner for Social Affairs Pádraig Flynn is not noted for using one word when half a dozen will do, so it came as no surprise that he suggested calling 1997 the “European Year Against Racism, Xenophobia and Anti-Semitism”.

That is, after all, the title of the Commission's original report on the subject, but the Union's interior ministers settled for the shorter European Year Against Racism, on the grounds that one word covered the matter quite adequately. The Germans, no doubt with an eye on the UK and the mad cow scare, wanted to add “and xenophobia” in case there should be any doubt.

This prompted Mr Flynn to suggest they might as well go for the full, unabridged, fully-set-out-as-originally-intended title.

The notion grew for a time, until the Germans decided that in the interests of brevity and consensus, not to mention succinctness and full agreement, they could live with the shortest version.