PROFILE – All in a Day’s work: Catherine Day

CAN someone who dedicates nearly all her time to her job escape being condemned as a workaholic?

Catherine Day, who has just been appointed the European Commission’s director-general for environment, would probably be the first to admit it’s a description that’s been applied to her.

In fact, it’s an understatement to say she loves her work and still finds it exciting after 20 years in Brussels. After all, this is someone who’s been known to set up meetings at weekends and who replies to emails at all hours. If you enjoy your job so much, then what else do you need?

Even if it hadn’t been announced as part of the biggest staff shake-up in the history of the Commission,

Day’s appointment would still be newsworthy. She’s risen successfully through the EU executive’s ranks, from passing the concours at 24 to becoming a director general at 47.

She’s also one of the few women to climb the whole way up in an institution where the glass ceiling is still well-polished; for the most part, women glimpse the top jobs, but are unable to break through to the other side.

Last but not least, she’s Irish, and her success proves that the days of national quotas are gone – or at least so say aides to the Commission president. They argue that if Romano Prodi wasn’t prepared to make a break with past practices, Day would have been forced to wait – because the Commission’s secretary-general, David O’Sullivan, is also Irish.

That last point of note, however, didn’t escape the attention of the media, who vented their spleen at Ireland’s apparent success in the Commission while some countries, such as Sweden and Finland, have no directors-general (DG’s) at all.

Interestingly, most of these criticisms didn’t originate in those countries but came from founding member states, which now fear they can no longer count on traditional fiefdoms in agriculture, competition and elsewhere.

Despite Day’s zeal for her work in the Commission, there’s no shortage of people willing to describe her as “adorable” or “clever” or “helpful”. Apart from a short fuse, there’s little obvious criticism of her character. In fact, some even praise her lack of patience when it comes to suffering fools.

She’s also renowned as a tough fighter in nasty cabinet squabbles, where officials usually end up waging proxy wars on behalf of their political masters. One official who called Day in trepidation seeking assistance with a problem when he knew none could be delivered, came away floating.

She had been unable to solve the problem or secure support from her commissioner, but at least she’d let him down gently. Others, however, claim her approach can be rather undiplomatic when it comes to defending her corner. They say she can be too quick to take offence and too slow to kiss and make up with her colleagues on behalf of their bosses.

Day was born in Mount Merrion, Dublin, and studied economics at University College there. She then worked briefly in Ireland’s private sector before moving to Brussels. The decision to relocate, she says, was an easy one, simply because Brussels was the home of the institutions and the heart of the European project, a topic about which she remains very passionate.

At the moment, she’s finishing her current job as deputy director general at external relations (RELEX), where she’s responsible for Europe, Central Asia, the Near and Middle East and the southern Mediterranean. She’ll take up her new role at DG Environment as soon as a replacement is found for her current post.

Day has spent most of her Commission career in four successive cabinets for three commissioners – two Irish and one British. She joined the cabinet of Ireland’s Richard Burke in 1982 at the age of 28, and stayed on for a term with his Irish successor, Peter Sutherland, who was competition commissioner at the time.

The atmosphere in Brussels then was far bleaker than now. Concepts like the euro were an elusive dream, she recalls. “There were the dead days of the early ’80s when everyone was writing off the European Community,” she says.

“It’s very hard to remember that now.”

But as Day changed jobs, the momentum was beginning to build and she was involved in the initial moves to liberalise the global trade regime through the late 1980s.

She then transferred to the cabinet of the UK’s Leon Brittan for two terms, when he was responsible for external economic affairs and trade policy. She returned to his service in 1996 as director for relations with third-world countries. Since then, she’s moved through a number of jobs in DG RELEX, where she says it has been fascinating to watch the gradual evolution of common European foreign policies.

“It’s so hard to agree on anything and then we drive our partners mad because then when we agree to something, we never change it,” she says.

Although unmarried, Day rejects any suggestion her career has come at too high a price for her personal life.

“I think everybody has to make their own choices and I don’t regret the way my life has gone. I think I’ve had fantastic opportunities to do things I never would have dreamed of when studying in University College Dublin in the library,” she says.

“I find it all tremendously stimulating, you learn so much all the time. The day I don’t find it interesting I’ll go off and do something else. Even after 20 years, there’s still plenty more to do.”

The Commission also has a reputation for being chauvinistic, with so few women in senior jobs. But Day insists that she has never felt discriminated against by any men with whom she has worked.

“I personally have been very lucky,” she says. “I’ve had bosses who were very supportive, men who haven’t made a difference because I’m a woman.”

Reflecting the broader social trends elsewhere, she says that women working in the EU end up carrying more than their fair share of the burden of raising families, which makes it harder to concentrate on careers with the same tenacity as many men.

“The demands on men and women are very, very high, but in our society, they tend to fall more heavily on the women,” she says, suggesting it’s a reason why divorce rates are so high in the Commission.

“The areas in which I work are highly pressurised and there’s massive expectations that the Commission will deliver, so at the management level we do worry about our colleagues, male or female. It’s a very heavy burden.”

Day’s being careful not to comment in detail about her new job before taking up responsibilities. She was attracted to the post, she says, because of the challenge to bring environmental policy into the mainstream of EU decision-making. And despite all the years in Brussels, she has no doubt about her nationality. “I never, ever did not feel Irish,” she says, “but maybe working abroad emphasises what is different about you.

“I don’t feel any contradiction between being Irish and European.”

She also proudly declares she has no hobbies whatsoever, but enjoys going out for meals and concerts.

Over the years, she’s travelled the world, for work and pleasure. In fact, she’s walked the Himalayas, travelling through Nepal, Tibet and the mountain kingdom of Bhutan.

But as she attempts to enforce environmental laws, set new standards and tackle global warming, it’s not likely Day will get much free time for exploring.

At the moment, that doesn’t appear to worry her one bit.