Interview with Clare Wells Shaddad
Clare Wells Shaddad (center), a member of the EPLO team, is leaving us next Wednesday to retire. We interns thought that, before she left, we would pick her brain on her experiences working in the office and the US-EU relationship!
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Stuart: How did you end up working for the EP?
Clare: Well I was a late developer… I didn’t come for idealistic reasons – shouldn’t be saying this but true (she laughs and smiles).
I went to the French Lycée in London, a centralized system in France. I then worked at UNESCO for 5 years in Paris before going to university. At the age of 27, I attended University of Sussex where I received a B.A. in International Relations (1st Class) and later a master’s in Contemporary European Studies.
I went to the University of Oxford and got a call to teach a course on the Palestine conflict at the University of Lancaster, in the Department of Politics. I then took job at the EP as a staffer on the Youth Committee while finishing my Oxford Doctorate on the UN system. Then my daughter was born, and the only practical path for me was to stay on at the EP – due to the child care spending cuts, and other reforms, introduced by Margaret Thatcher in England.
So again, I did not come in as an idealist, but I had the background. And as I continued to work for the Parliament, the ideals grew on me.
Josh: What do you currently find most relevant about EU-US relations?
Clare: I think it is mostly in the obvious things. The two blocks are still the world leaders in most things that count: in technology, democratic political systems, defence of human rights, etc.
We talk a lot about how we should use this partnership to set the norms together and prevent other countries from unilaterally setting global standards. That may appear too confrontational. I think what is important is that the EU and the US work together to help bring the emerging power-centers into a new global system of governance. Obviously the rise of some developing countries to prominence is changing geopolitics. Extending the global governance arrangements to new countries in an intelligent would be the best way forward. Such structures would provide a framework for discussing all the hot topics of the day: reform of the global economic and financial sectors, energy policy, the environment and climate change, intellectual property, etc.
It is give and take, of course, but through cooperation we can help form a new global framework. It’s about how to bring [emerging nations] into the system, not the US and EU imposing their way on other countries. We can and should work together, but not against the others. In this way, cooperation between the United States and Europe has a place in ensuring that we don’t meet the emerging world antagonistically.
Molly T: What do you see in the future for EU and US Congress relations?
Clare: I’m no visionary, so I don’t know what the future will hold, but I would like to see new ways of working together. The European Parliament and the United States Congress are very different, but the hope is that they can find ways to work together on many levels. If you look at differences between the two bodies, you can see the scale of the challenge: different length of mandates, differing role of business and finance in electoral processes, differing legislative and regulatory roles. If we want access to representatives, we have to be able to show what the EU can bring to a congressman and his district, especially in the way of trade, investment and job creation.
I hope that the EP Office in Washington can help enhance the relationship with Congress. We should aim to relate to Congressional Staff members and try to identify with them on the topics and the committees that are important in order to build a reciprocal relationship with Congress. This is certainly not impossible but it is complex.
Molly W: What is your favorite memory or most memorable event from working for Parliament?
Clare: Story 1: I lived for 8 years with a great-aunt who went stone deaf during WWII. She never recovered. In the Youth,Culture and Education Committee, there was a suggestion for a single sign language in all the Member States. Shortly thereafter, at my suggestion, the committee organized a “hearing of the non-hearing” to see what those directly concerned thought about it. What came out of this hearing was that the deaf definitely did not want a single sign language. What they truly wanted was recognition of sign language interpretation as a profession and support for training in that discipline.
Story 2: In the mid-90s, when I was on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (which is responsible for so much legislation), we were passing legislation to ban tobacco advertising. There was enormous lobbying from the private sector. It was the first time I had direct experience of such pressures and I really remember how that felt. It was almost scary.
Story 3: The debate over what can legitimately be called chocolate. 8 countries decided to define chocolate in the purist sense (using cocoa butter) and 7 member states (including UK) using other fats. There was even a name change proposal for the latter : Vegelate!
Stuart: What is your favorite U.S. state that you have visited and why?
Clare: I am very happy to be able to say that the whole United States is wonderful! I am not going to make a choice because I have only scratched the barest surface of the continent.
I really enjoyed Texas (‘did’ Dallas, Johnson City, Austin, Bandera, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston/Galveston) and was also fascinated by Utah. I was saddened by New Orleans, where you see that many areas have still not fully recovered from the Katrina damage.
A city I have urged many colleagues to visit is Memphis. For an outsider, it brings together so many strands of US history: cotton museum showing conditions in the plantations, blues and soul museums, through ‘white’ soul (Elvis’ Graceland), and on to the fantastic civil rights museum built at the spot where MLK Jr was killed. For a fairly small city, you can find an awful lot of American history.
And I ventured to Chicago as well. Like many others (so I hear), I had visions of Prohibition Chicago against dour industrial backdrops. Loved the city, it is great! Especially the architectural river cruises. Dare I say it – the Trump tower is a thing of beauty. I like that they have outdoor dancing in the summer in Millennium Park. I had no great expectations of either Memphis or Chicago but ended up really enjoying them.
Stuart: Where did you find the people most welcoming?
Clare: I cannot think of a place I did not find the people very pleasant and welcoming. That is something that many Europeans could learn from Americans, and so is American dynamism, can-do attitude and openness. These are clichés, but true just the same. On the other hand, I hope that you (saying to us interns, as Americans) will live to enjoy some of the benefits that we have in Europe – such as decent health care for all.
Finally, Clare left the interns with a few practical thoughts:
Make sure you get in touch with your target ‘host’ committees at HQ early on
Spend some time focusing on your interests/topics even if you have to be pushy!
Thank you so much, Clare. We wish you the best!
