After more than three years, Terry Stewart is leaving his post of DG of the Institute of European Affairs, a body which analyses Euro policy. Although officially a part-time position and carrying the not large salary of around £25,000, there is considerable interest in the post among Irish Eurocrats, both here and there. The chairman, Brendan Halligan and his board are understood to be looking for a replacement with an academic and/or political background.
While Belfast-born Stewart was 65 in January and is retiring from the job, he is not retiring from work. He stays on as vice-chairman of the IEA executive and is on the board of the Irish Association for Cultural Economic and Social Relations. He also intends writing his memoirs, concentrating on his career in the Northern Ireland civil service, where he served under the late Brian Faulkner in the Ministry of Commerce, and on his time with Gaeltarra Eireann in Galway, which he says had some innovatory aspects. He will also play golf.
Before he leaves the North Great George's Street institute, Stewart will be hosting two Euro lectures. Next Wednesday the guest will be Pierre Moscovici, the French Minister for European Affairs and a rising star of the left, on his country's European policy, and next month it will be Edmund Stoiber, the colourful PM of Bavaria who is a great advocate of more autonomy for the regions. Moscovici arrives in his private jet on Wednesday afternoon; has separate discussions with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews; and holds a press conference and hosts a reception for the French community before jetting out again that evening.