I'm David Poyser, a journalist, and welcome to the eighth episode of PezPod.

The Insiders Guide to the Pez Network for PESS, Public Employment Services in the EU.

Today I'm with someone whose job you've all heard of. He's Nicholas Schmidt, the European Commissioner for jobs and social rights.

Commissioner Schmidt is one of 27 commissioners, one for each member state of the European Union.

And as you may know, since Commissioner Schmidt was appointed back in 2019, he's been a great

supporter of the Pez Network. Hello, Commissioner. Hello. I don't know if you know it, Commissioner.

There is a film, isn't it, called About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson. What can you tell us about

Nicholas Schmidt? Yeah, first, I have nothing to do with this Schmidt. But, well,

Nicholas Schmidt, he is the commissioner coming from Luxembourg.

He has been in this job now for nearly two years.

And before, I've dealt with social issues, but I'm also very concretely with my family always observing how things are going, especially for the young, having four children.

Four children, I was going to say, that's a lot. Do you have any dogs or just the children?

I have also three dogs.

What a lovely family life. I bet you're desperate to leave Brussels and get back to Luxembourg at the weekend.

Anyway, after you realised you were going to become Commissioner,

how did you feel when you heard that you were going to be put forward for the jobs portfolio,

Commissioner?

I was very lucky because that's the job finally I wanted.

So I got the job I had asked for.

It's like a birthday, like Christmas, all rolled into one. Yeah. Across the EU, when the pandemic

hit, the Pezzes, the government-run job centres, were at the front line supporting those affected

by the pandemic, weren't they? They suddenly had to deal with way over double their workload,

...