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EU Commission Deputy Unit Head Commits Suicide After Demotion
Gauthier Pierens, a brilliant and trusted lawyer of the European Commission, committed suicide last Friday, December 4, a little before 11 am. Pierens jumped from the window of his office, at the second floor of European Commission’s Breydel building, at 45 Avenue d’Auderghem, in Brussels, Belgium.
The reasons behind his suicide are currently unknown.
Colleagues working with Pierens told New Europe on the condition of anonymity that Pierens had been expecting, after more than two decades of service, to be promoted from Deputy Head of Unit to Head of Unit. Instead, Pierens was demoted to Desk Officer.
According to the same sources, Pierens was clear and uncompromising in his duties, behaving solely as a jurist. Colleagues told New Europe that Pierens was unwilling to make compromises necessary to elevate his career.
As Deputy Head of Unit, Pierens opposed the political compromises suggested by a strong Member State in the legislation providing for the concession of highways. Without being said that his demotion was due to his strong attitude over the matter, he was moved as a Desk Officer to the Space Unit of DG GROW, dealing with the assignment of the launching of the Galileo satellites, to Soyuz.
A little after 10 am on Friday, Pierens was waiting in the anteroom of his office with his assistant, for his boss to finish her meeting and to go together to the Deputy Director-General for another meeting. When she stepped out of the meeting, Pierens rushed to his room, locked the door behind him. His assistant began to understand that Pierens had opened the window and started to climb on the ledge and started to scream, “no, Gauthier, don’t do it…”. A few moments later, Pierens jumped, ending his life.
The Commission was immediately mobilised. His Director did not let the Belgian Police inform his family but went personally to meet his wife who could not be reached immediately.
Elzbieta Bienkowska, the Commissioner for Growth was not on scene and communicated about the situation by SMS messages.
On the contrary, from the first moment Vice-President responsible for Personnel, Kristalina Georgieva went on to the Breydel building and took control of the situation, speaking to all staff and giving a human response in such an emotionally charged situation.
In cases of suicide, when occurring at the place of work, the suicide itself is often work related.
Regardless of whether there is a link or not to his suicide, it is perhaps worth examining the dossiers Pierens was working on before and after the time of his demotion.
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Best news of the Day.
This.
We need more of this.
Commendable action by our trusted servants.
1 down and 10,000 to go.
JUMP YOU DIRTY MOTHERFUCKERS !!!!
Well, it’s a start…..
the journey of a thousand miles and all that
Don't ISIS throw fags off a high building as punishment?
"a brilliant and trusted lawyer", explains the demotion. Think I would have tried something a
little higher than the second floor though.
We need moar Hudsuckers in the EU bureaucrazy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMqX7BvUGaw
You can kill yourself by jumping from a 2nd story window ?
The end of the EU can't happen soon enough. Refuge crisis is the final nail in the coffin.
Most of us would simply move to a better job if we're worth it.
The twisted mind of the career bureaucrat.
You have been provided the official narrative. Move along.
He rushed to his office and locked the door behind him.
He opened the window. He jumped.
Everyone rushed to ground floor.
No one was in the office that was locked.
No one came out once everyone was diverted away from the door.
Everyone believed the narrative that he was hard work, ethical, lawyer who stood up for his ethical beliefs.
That is how he became a Dupty Head. He never compromised.
Sleep well my little sheeples, sleep well.
That's what happens when you have a nail gun free zone.
You can kill yourself falling awkwardly down the street!
He jumped from the 1st floor holding a nail gun.
since when do windows in new office buildings open???
still, a good start....few more thousand and it may make a dent
Falls off a ladder higher than 30ft are often fatal, due to the shear forces that a hard landing from that height exerts on the spleen. Unless you break your fall very well of course. Or, you could jump from about 15 feet up and land on your head...
Tragic. I weep for that poor bureaucrat lawyer.
Now might be an opportune time to promote him.
Just sayin'...
Well he can't be more brain dead than the rest of 'em, can he?
and maybe even a little more transparrent...
Flexible.. for sure,
and liquid, definately.
and definately not going to fuck up anymore press briefings...
can't possibly be more broken than the Greek banking system...
In fact, if you consider that he probably looked perfect right up until the last instant, when he didn't, he's beginning to look like the perfect banker, in more ways than one...
I should give a shit, but frankly, I don't...
because this is what bankers would rather do, than get a proper fucking job.
Gravity + petulant, godless, Euro-weenie = Freedom
Good. Now if we could get most of the EU leadership to follow in his footsteps.
The EU headquarters are more than two stories high. Go to the roof Eurocrats! We don't want you screwing up your final assignment
Jump you fuckers!
Cool avatar.
Seems this guy may have been more against the grain than a cog, and he was 'rewarded'. So it may not be best news if he was someone trying to make positive changes.
At the risk of being callous or unenlightened I would suggest that someone trying to "make positive changes" " might find a different occupation than banking.
he sounded more like a banking regulator. i can't think of an occupation, if performed correctly, more likely to make positive changes. it's what the world needed in 2008 and didn't get from the agent of change and everyone else. this guy could end up like the vietnamese buddhist monks who set themselves on fire.
not everyone has the patience for the edward snowden role.
Right...because the repeal of one portion of a set of regulations which had no bearing whatsoever on the major banks which ended up actually going broke in 2008 means that there's clearly not already scores of banking regulations, and "one more ought to do it" (c).
It could be better. It's too bad his assistant who noticed he was jumping didn't get there in time for the jumper to grab him and both of them would have died. Oh well I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
I think you are celebrating the wrong guy. It sounded like he got screwed for not sucking up. It's the suck ups that need to jump. Alas those manipulative lying weasel bastards never do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfJ9D0pcXeY
" Pierens was clear and uncompromising in his duties, behaving solely as a jurist. Colleagues told New Europe that Pierens was unwilling to make compromises necessary to elevate his career."
Unfortunately, he probably was the least corrupt and most sane of the department if you read the above statement.
It's a start.
The second floor?!? Ummm...did they overlook the bullet holes in the back of his head?
<----- I was never there. You can't prove a thing.
Lol for all you out there I also have to say that I was not even near 45 Avenue d’Auderghem, in Brussels, Belgium today ... ok ? :)
Probably not bullets, more like nails.
Seriously .... Second floor? Another potentially botched attempt by a goobermint official to hang holiday lights covered up as a suicide.
Second floor?
Like WTF?
See... this is what un-fluoridated water will do!!!!!!
Exactly he was demoted to Office Desk and was making his work ... hanging outside the Christmas decorations ... Geez ...
A clear example that after all the news that denying it ... Eurocrats do some work after all ...
Second floor: We wasn't getting very good advice that day.
Here is how you do it:
http://twoicefloes.com/your-turn/cougar_w-articles/the-corner-office/
Professional service, all the way down.
Your 'Murican is showing...
A European 2nd floor generally equates to a US third floor. And high rise building are less common. Although it appears he could have went up perhaps another 4 floors, and if his office was in the south west corner of the building he could have accelerated for another two stories before going reaching pavement.
Tell me another one.
Second floor? Eek. There is a lot of room for error on that kind of attempt.
Did he fall on a nail gun?
pods
<----- In a manner of speaking, yes.
He jumped while holding a gun, and when he hit, the gun went off shooting him in the head. Totally believeable, it happened in World War Z.
We need to outlaw concrete sidewalks.
--> "Second floor? Eek. There is a lot of room for error on that kind of attempt."
Go easy: he's an EU bureaucrat, not a rocket scientist. You can't expect him to understand gravity
he probably thot they had either outlawed gravity, or being a member of .gov he was exempt from all law even....what did you call it "the law of gravity". I guess he thought you had to jump to find out what was in it.
He would have jumped out of a window in the basement but ......
<<-- Jumped?
<<-- Pushed?
pushed by terrorists
absolutely, all governments are terrorists, murderers, thieves, rapists, baby killers.
oh, forgot, sexual deviants and mostly pedophiles. pretty much a collection of the worse humans on the planet.
Many terrorists in Brussels, with NATO and EU headquarters.
Yes !! One Down !!! Sadly many more to go!
As far as we can see there are plenty whose time has expired and should be helped to go and join him.
Yes, it starts !
How many to go or is it to soon to start counting down yet.
If he really was an "uncompromising, honest" member of the EU Commission, he was likely shoved out the window. Or his superiors had a good idea that he wouldn't take the demotion well.
Can't have any honest people at the EU.
--> ""uncompromising, honest" member of the EU Commission"
That is a textbook example of an oxymoron...
Commissioner for Growth...unfortunately you don't have to make this shit up.
Human Resouces at the EC takes on a whole new meaning.
100 bucks says he was working on TPIP legislation.
Pffft In Baltimore, they immolate one another... makes way better viewing
Well Cork is the suicide capital of Ireland with double the number of jumpers relative to Dublin 4.
Its good to see the euro love bombs spreading to Mordor itself
Jump you fuckers
2nd floor? Was his neck snapped before he hit the pavement?
No, Gauthier, don't do it!
Just replace the name "Gauthier" with "Nicole", and that would be word for word what OJ screamed before Nicole committed suicide...
So what? Jump you fuckers!!! and keep jumping!
you guys have to understand something ... letting the guy go would be very very expensive ... Unemployment benefits are huge for those suckers ...So they thought ...what the hell! It's cheaper to keep him as a Office Desk ...
and then this happens :)
They should do that to the fed Chiefs.
I think his wife told him she was coming back to live with him. A butterfly fluttering back to home and bang goes the freedom.
Maybe the Jihadis told him he was their pet doodle victim. Who knows, Brussels sprouts odd people living in ivory towers. The boys love to pee and mussels love to be french fried.
Even the beer is sanctified. A demotion is promotion for moar free time. Some people hate free time. It means less free money.
The world is all about free time or free money; never the two at once UNLESS you be ONE of the 1%.
He slipped on a puddle of printer ink, and fell out of a window.
Fall was broken by a barage of nails from a nail gun.
Landed in a jacuzzi.
Choked on a huge line of blow.
The second floor of that building is not high at all. I guess he could have hit his head but it just doesn't look high enough for a suicide.
Yea, maybe he was just getting some air.
t could be better. It's too bad his assistant who noticed he was jumping didn't get there in time for the jumper to grab him and both of them would have died. Oh well I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
He was a lawyer!!! What a shame. What a shame he didn't push a few of his friends out the window before he jumped. I guess it's a good start though. One is better than none.
Wtf??!!! No video??!!! Damn that would have been good.
Looking at the pay grades (they go from 2.6k to 16k a month) I would guess this parasite was probably around grade 12, that's 10k euro's a month, plus expenses, plus a pension plan that will bankrupt a (collection of) small nations.
Some people just don't know when they were on a good thing.
That's a start.
How about some of the US federal reserve members?
That's tragic. Most of us would rather jump the ledge than be in the EU and this clown jumps because he can't get enough of it.
The trough those pigs drink at is very deep
yah his 7 figure income was about to become a 6 figure income, can't live with that.
Suicided.
The judges scores are in:
|10| |10| |10| |9.5|
(half point deducted for poor techique on the reverse pike)
This is a two-fer. A lawyer and a bureaucrat.
Cant miss. Now, just another couple million of these types and we'll finally have a free and fair society.
What? Too soon?
The guy was probably well off, big retirement pension sewed up and he jumps out the window?
Either he's a melodramatic drama queen or he got tossed.
I vote tossed.
+1 he got tossed
either they don't have cell phones over there, or that floor was too close to the ground to let the auto focus adjust. And, why wasn't he wearing a GoPro??
I love self correcting problems. He was probably overworked or over sexed.
As a long time climber I am familiar with the stats. 2 stories...better than 50% survival. By the 4th floor you are way less than 50%. I know of one person (Lynn Hill) who fell 70 feet and survived with a small fracture. She hit a bush though. Plan on dying for sure above 5 stories....then there are the few who survive falls from airplanes...
surviving 30 meter fall is possible. that's ?90something feet
important thing is not to land on concrete , and to be relaxed before you make contact. muscular stiffness doesn't help the landing profile. i suspect the bureaucrat was a little too tense as he hit the ground.
So he was competent and got fucked. He was probably tossed from the window too for finding misgivings.
Keep it up Europe, enjoy your invaders. The West is dying.
After seeing the markets 'bounce' after every dip for no logical reason - he started to believe that it applied to everything - including himself.
EU hasn't standardized floor counting with a EU Directive yet, so perhaps this is a mix-up between second (eg., British counting rules) and third (eg., American counting rules) floors?
Totally selfish action.
He could've handcuffed himself to two Eurocrats first.
The second floor? That's usually good for some bumps and bruises. Did ZH get this story right?
His conscience got the best of him...
"an "uncompromising, honest" member of the EU Commission"
Which means the entire story is a hoax.
Hopefully they left the window wide open for others to follow.
Maybe put a direction sign in the corridor pointing to "Open Window 50 metres".
Take the desk job and let the people above him knife each other in the back
for a couple of years and he could be promoted back where he wanted to be all along.
I wonder if he truly was an honest member of the Commission. These agencies do want to know the truth, they just don't ever publish the truth. It is possible that the spread between truth and what is published got too wide and this guy became a liability.
He needed to not do this out of sudden emotion.
He should have left work and came back later
with a gym bag, Matrix style.
Then he should have went to a meeting of all the top directors and see if any can imitate Agent Smith.
Earlier post said someone survived a four story fall by falling into a bush. There could be worse ways to survive. Viva la bush !
Two possibilities:
1. He was demoted and the promotion offered to whoever was sucking the appropriate cock.
Someone found out he was considering resigning and going to the free media with names and bank account numbers in non-EU countries.
A protocol had been worked out long before for cases like this. He was swiftly dealt with---possibly with help from the assistant---and crocodile tears shed on cue.
2. The assistant, who doubled as his mistress, found out her flight to the top riding on his coattails had ended. She lured him onto the ledge to "console" him and pushed him to his death.
Because she's a woman, the police will rule out any wrongdoing on her part with only token questioning, if that.
---
I'll tell you what this wasn't. This wasn't suicide. This was murder.
Must not have been a nail gun nearby.
Unless there is more to this story than presented here, then this guy was just a mid-level bureaucratic tool who drank the EU Kool-Aid so deeply he got a little confused about how state power actually works and couldn't get his head around the truth when he collided with it. Happens all the time. In no way rises to a nailgun level of nuisance.
Though it's fun to imagine this being like the deal the German government offered Rommel. I.e., you have a choice, full-on tax/drug/impropriety/whatever investigation leading to public trial, humiliation, imprisonment, financial ruin, and "no guarantee of safety" for your family members. Or you will be praised in the media as a person "clear and uncompromising in his duties" while your family is left in peace to collect a fat pension due to your tragic suicide.
I hear a lot of people talking about the second floor issue, let me tell you what actually happened...
An EU activist named Josephine Witt recently completed a sniper training class and she was staked outside the EU building about 1 mile away. She saw an EU guy come to the window on the second floor. Since she was timid as this was her first human shot, she went for the leg. She shot him in the leg, he immediately fell forward and his thick empty head broke the glass in front of him and he fell to the ground. He only died when he hit the pavement and the impact turned his minor gunshot wound on his leg into a soccer ball size wound as his blood exploded out of his leg like a fire hose. That is why he died, basically he bled to death instantly. Let's put this one to bed, case solved.
I'd settle for respiratory failure.
Turkeys applicaton for EU development money for upgrading of roads crossing its borders with Syria, primarliy to deal with incresed freight traffic are now likely to be reconsidered.
A lawyer and an agent of the EU, I just cant see the down side of this story. (excuse the pun)
Socialism kills!
One way or another, yes, it does!
Hmmm, "a brilliant and trusted lawyer". Not brilliant enough to be in private practice and trusted just enough to get demoted and commit suicide. Well, RIP to his family.
From 2012: "Gauthier PIERENS (Deputy Head of Unit, Intellectual Property)..."
www.ecta.org