|
30 April 2010
John Gwyn Morgan, former Head of the European Commission Office in Wales from 1976 to 1980, peacefully passed away at home on 21 April aged 76 years.
Gwyn Morgan worked for the European Commission from 1973 to 1999. His long career took him to Brussels, back to Wales, and then onwards to Canada, Turkey, Israel, Thailand and Indonesia among other places. Prior to his work in the European Commission Gwyn Morgan held positions in the British Labour Party and the National Union of Students, and also trained as a teacher following a degree in Classics at Aberystwyth University.
In 1976 Gwyn Morgan set up the first office in Wales for the European Commission, initially operating from the Angel Hotel in Cardiff city centre, but eventually establishing the office on Cathedral Road where it stayed until 2002. At the time the EC Office mainly had an information role, providing EC information to citizens and local authorities, in a period of much heated debate in the UK related to the referendum on maintaining EEC membership. Since then the EC Office has moved to Cardiff Bay, close to the Senedd where today the National Assembly for Wales meets, and in terms of activities has branched out into the areas of political affairs, press and media, and outreach and public diplomacy.
The European Commission remembers Gwyn with great fondness and gratitude for his pioneer's work in the Commission. We would also like to express our sympathy to his partner and children on his passing away.
Andy Klom
Head of the European Commission Office in Wales
| 
