My fifteen minutes of fame with Radio France Internationale

“We’ve been able to set up interviews with mayor Gerd Leers and Professor Luc Soete, and also with a student from the University of Maastricht who has just written a book about the Maastricht Treaty, but we are still very keen on interviewing you as well,” the young journalist from Radio France Internationale said to me on the phone. “I’m sure you’ve got many interesting things to say about Maastricht as a European city,” she added.

“You? Why you?” asked my incredulous Dutch husband when I told him the big news.

To be honest, I had no idea either, but I couldn’t help feeling flattered. “Maybe because they want to know the opinion of a French expatriate in Maastricht?” I offered. “Maybe they think it’s important to give a voice to someone from the common people as well…?”

Surge of adrenaline
The interview was going to take place in a café near the Market square on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the signature of the Maastricht Treaty. Jessica Jouve, the journalist from Brussels, introduced me to Joost van den Akker, the young and bright Dutch student she had told me about and to her boss, Quentin Dickinson, who was going to conduct both interviews.

Quentin Dickinson, RFI’s chief correspondent in Brussels! I couldn’t believe my ears, or my eyes. I had so often heard his name next to such important people on the French airwaves! Everyone in France is familiar with the words: “au micro de Quentin Dickinson”. And now here I was, standing in front of the eminent correspondent, and it was going to be my turn to speak into his microphone!

I could feel the surge of adrenaline. But I remembered my husband’s wise advice: “Try to stay calm Sueli, and think before you speak.”

Luckily, we first had some time for a drink and a chat in a relaxed atmosphere. Quentin Dickinson, Joost and I ordered a cup of coffee while Jessica, who obviously wanted to experience Maastricht to the full, went for a Wieckse Witte (the white beer of Maastricht) and asked me if she could taste the Maastricht butter cookie which was served together with my cup of coffee.

“Is that your equipment?”, I asked Dickinson, pointing at the old heavy-looking leather satchel he placed on the table in front of him. “Yes,” he said, “this is all I need and it still works”. I had never taken part in a audio interview before but I somehow expected something more modern, more compact, maybe more digital…?

But suddenly something started ringing and Dickinson quickly produced a very sophisticated electronic device that looked like a notebook. It was much larger and thicker than a regular mobile phone and it even had a touch screen. It definitely looked impressive. He raised it to his ear and started talking into it. At one point he said: “Here’s one of your admirers”, and without any warning handed me the device.

“Is this… Pierre”? I asked, remembering that I just had told Dickinson that many years ago, when I was still working as a project assistant at the European Journalism Centre in Maastricht, I had had the pleasure to assist his collaborator Pierre Benazet during one or two seminars for journalists. And indeed, it was Pierre himself, who in the meantime had become Quentin Dickinson’s right hand in Brussels! More adrenaline.

The interviews
When we finished our beverages, Dickinson opened his leather bag and I saw that it contained two sets of tapes. He took out a microphone and I noticed the words “France Inter” written on it. Things were starting to get serious.

Dickinson said that he was first going to interview Joost van den Akker. I have often admired how self assured Dutch people usually are. Even at a young age, they do not quickly feel overwhelmed. And here again I was impressed at the self-confident, and yet modest, young student who simply sat there, straight on his chair, smiling receptively at the veteran journalist.

Dickinson wanted to know if the people of Maastricht were proud to have a European treaty named after their city and if they had benefited from it. “Yes, I have no doubt about it,” Joost replied in French. He described how thanks to the treaty, everyone he met abroad was familiar with the name of his city. He also spoke about the University of Maastricht, which from a rather unknown provincial university, had grown into a dynamic and even prestigious place to study, welcoming thousands of European and international students from all over the world. “It is a direct consequence of the treaty that the University of Maastricht now offers many European courses, including the European Studies programme that I am taking,” he said.

Joost did not seem intimidated to speak in French, which he mastered fairly well. Every time he was a bit hesitant about a word, he simply used the English one instead and gave it a French intonation, and whenever he realised he had made a mistake, he simply laughed at himself. He seemed so at ease. As I listened to his intelligent answers, I hoped that my own children would also turn into fine young adults like him.

Quentin Dickinson then turned the microphone to me and, taking me totally by surprise, he asked: “Where were you 15 years ago”? While I made the calculation (maths is not my strong point!), I almost panicked: “Oh my goodness, we cannot have a silence in the recording, I have to say something quickly!”

And then I knew my answer: “Fifteen years ago, my husband and I lived in Amersfoort, in the centre of the country. After the ratification of the treaty in Maastricht, we heard that many European institutes had been founded here, so we decided to move to Limburg to try and find work in one of them.”

This is indeed what happened. As part of a training course called “Eurobureautique” offered by Maastricht’s employment agency in cooperation with its Belgian counterpart in Liège, my husband did an internship at the European Journalism Centre, where he ended up obtaining a permanent position and where I joined him a few years later.

Dickinson’s next question was more challenging than it sounded: “Is Maastricht a European city?”. “Yes,” I replied, “geographically speaking, it is definitely a European city”. And I gave him a few examples of cooperation that the city has developed with its neighbouring cities in Belgium and Germany. But I also added that there is still room for improvement: “Although many Maastricht residents like to go shopping in the Flemish city of Hasselt, or in Aachen, across the German border, I’ve also met some who’ve never been to Liège!”. “And all three cities are less than 50 kms away from Maastricht, aren’t they?” commented Dickinson.

“Maastricht is still very much attached to its traditions,” I continued. Many people prefer to express themselves in their local dialect instead of Dutch. And the Limburg dialect is not even exactly the same whether you’re in Maastricht or in any of its neighbouring towns!”

“So,” the alert Brussels correspondent sharply remarked, “it is actually thanks to the Treaty that Maastricht realised that it was a European city?”

I had to agree with this observation, and I said that the city, under the leadership of its ambitious and dynamic mayor Gerd Leers, was continuing to work hard to market its European image.

When we continued to talk together after the interview, I asked Dickinson if he and Jessica had travelled to Maastricht with the new fast train connection between Maastricht and Brussels. But to my surprise, he had not heard of it yet. “Probably because there is no information available about it in English or in any other European language on the Maastricht city website,” I later thought to myself on my way back home.

The broadcast
By the time we finished the interviews, it was snowing outside and the two journalists were getting worried about the trip back to Brussels. But they were still hoping to get hold of Roland Dumas, the former French Foreign Minister who had actually signed the Treaty back in 1992 and who was visiting Maastricht again for the 15th anniversary of the event.

We all shook hands and cordially parted our ways. And naturally I spent the rest of the evening biting my fingers about some of the things I had said and the way I had said them (I was maybe a bit too vehement for example in my criticism of the Belgian roadtax plans, which in my opinion really go against the European spirit); the mistakes I had made (I used the word “expansion” instead of “enlargement”); and all the important things I could have said but of course forgot (such as how profoundly European the dialect of Maastricht actually is, when you take a closer look at its etymological roots).

The next morning, I anxiously listened to all the audio news files on the website of Radio France Internationale… But I was only able to find one that ran a story about the Treaty of Maastricht. It was the last news item and the file was almost ending so I quickly realised that the news editor had only selected one fragment among the various interviews. “Mayor Gerd Leers, ” I guessed.

After introducing the subject, the newsreader announced: “….Roland Dumas, au micro de Quentin Dickinson” and I heard the former French minister recall the moments immediately following the ratification of the treaty, when Francois Mitterrand, the French president at the time, had asked him if he fully grasped the historical importance of the document he had just signed.

“So did you make it to the airwaves?” asked my husband when he came back from work that evening. “Well no,” I said modestly, “I guess my hour of glory hasn’t come yet.” And I told him who had been broadcast instead.

“Oh, so the Franco-French perspective prevailed again?”, he quipped.

This is when I realised how attached I have become to this region, because I somehow could not help regretting that the French radio had not chosen to broadcast someone from Maastricht as well - (and I don’t mean necessarily myself of course :)). After all, how much does someone like Roland Dumas know or care about our dear city?

By Sueli Brodin
Crossroads editor

French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas and Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy signing the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992

Related article: The Treaty of Maastricht on display in Maastricht: a photo-reportage for Crossroads