Irish EU Commission chief is market-oriented and not environment-friendly
Catherine Day is the current Secretary-General of the European Commission. She followed another Irish person, David Sullivan, into the role, to the chagrin of some of our European friends. Day has been in that position since 2005 during the whole of the Barroso Commission, having previously been the Director General for the Environment.
Catherine Day was born in Dublin in 1954, brought up in Mount Merrion and educated at Mount Anville private convent-school. She has a BA in economics and an MA in International Trade and Economic Integration from University College Dublin and went on to be the loan officer at the Investment Bank of Ireland in 1974. The following year she became EC Information Officer at the Confederation of Irish Industry. Much of her ethos seems to have been forged by this time. She joined the European Commission in 1979 and the cabinet of Ireland’s Richard Burke in 1982 at the age of 28, staying for a term with his Irish successor, Peter Sutherland, competition commissioner. She then transferred to the cabinet of the UK’s Leon Brittan, a Tory, for two terms, when he was responsible for external economic affairs and trade policy. She returned to work for him in 1996 as director for relations with third-world countries. Day became deputy director in Chris Patten’s external relations where she was deeply involved with the enlargement of the Union from 15 countries to today’s 27.
After this, Catherine Day (not to be confused with Estonia’s national holiday, ‘Catherine’s Day’) was part of a reshuffle among the Commission which promoted liberal economic reformers. She had become notable in the Commission for taking on French state-aid policy. Before becoming head civil servant she served as head of the Environment DG.
Apart from her short fuse, colleagues speak well of Day.
