What a surprise to find, on opening fashion magazine Marie Claire (January's Dutch language edition), a rather less well-known side of European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, posing with her personal bodyguard of young female managers! Each is more proud and delighted than the other to be working for a commissioner whose “excellent decision-making, strong personality, empathy and humanity” all praise. We learn that Neelie Kroes, taking her lead from Commission President José Manuel Barosso, has become the leading light of equal opportunities and work-life balance! We discover the great care she takes with her appearance, somewhat reminiscent of American soaps. Neelie Kroes is an example for all women, says her team of ladies, since she “knows how to keep her femininity even though she has a very important job”. We can but applaud such elegance and charisma. However, she can hide a very different side … when Neelie Kroes the tough businesswoman arrived in Brussels four years ago, she was preceded by the nickname “Nickel Neelie” given to her in the Netherlands because of her hard-nosed approach to business that could make the best of them tremble - as some have learned to their cost! Neelie Kroes acknowledges that she “may be” “an awkward pain in the neck” at work, put stresses that what is true for women is also true for men, and vice versa. “There are men who are delightful, there are wet rags, there are those who are hard, and that goes for women too!” she says. A powerful woman, open to others, one thing is certain: “Nickel Neelie” knows how to sell herself in the celebrity press. Could this be in preparation for her leaving the Commission … or to make sure that she stays? Only time will tell. At 67, Neelie Kroes has no time for talk of retirement! “Not for me,” she says, adding that she hopes “to remain active for a long time yet and to never stop thinking”. Good advice! (G.B.)