For the man on whose shoulders rests the onerous task of putting the euro into the pockets of 400 million Europeans in the next 18 months, little is known about the real Pedro Solbes, the Spanish-born European Commissioner for economic and financial affairs, who has taken to advising our Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, on the action to take to address our worsening inflation figures. Nearly every opinion on him is favourable but few seem to know him really well.
"Grey" seems to be one adjective almost universally used. But even those who describe him thus temper their description with more flattering adjectives like "efficient", "thoughtful", and "competent"; some even describe him as "brilliant". The least flattering description of the former Spanish Economy Minister is: "The perfect technocrat, a highly-disciplined functionary but one without a political soul".
He once said about himself: "I am a normal man, normal in absolutely everything."
Mr Solbes was born near Alicante in August 1942. His father was a postal worker, and Pedro and his brother were the first members of their family to go to university. He read law followed by a doctorate in political science at Madrid University and later read European Studies in Brussels.
Old friends say that the civil service was always his goal. He was ambitious and determined to make a success of his career. As a student, he preferred to concentrate on his studies and, unlike many of his contemporaries in the late 1960s, refused to take part in the anti-Franco demonstrations which swept the country.
When he was told that he would need to speak foreign languages if he wanted to get on, he spent one summer vacation working in France and another on an assembly line in a German factory. His English followed later.
His wife, Maria del Pilar was his teenage girlfriend - she also became a civil servant - and the couple have two daughters, aged 26 and 18, and a 22 year-old son.
Mr Solbes is an ardent europhile, and his current mission to guide Europe towards the goal of the single currency is therefore highly appropriate.
Almost from the start he has steered his own career towards Europe. In 1971, when Spain won its first preferential trade agreement with the European Community, Mr Solbes was the councillor for foreign trade for his native Valencia-Alicante region, and he fought long and hard, particularly against Israel, to ensure that Valencia oranges and tomatoes had their fair share of the market.
From 1973 until 1978, he was a member of the Spanish mission to the the European Community, doing the groundwork for Spain's eventual membership. He then became adviser on European affairs to the centrist prime minister Mr Leopoldo Calvo Sotello.
Mr Solbes has been described as a socialist at heart but not on paper and although he became a deputy in parliament, he never held a Socialist Party membership card.
In 1982, when the socialists won their first election, Mr Solbes joined the government as Secretary of State (junior minister) for the Economy. Three years later he was appointed Secretary of State for the European Community and, in 1991, became Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, a cabinet position that made him unpopular with farmers who accused him of thinking more about Brussels than the farming community in Spain.
He was sympathetic to their complaints but refused to budge from his chosen path. "I merely adapted our agriculture to the realities of Brussels. I took the necessary decisions, acted energetically and put them into practice," he said later.
His promotion two years later to the sensitive economy portfolio surprised many. He came to the job at a time when Spain was sunk in one of the deepest recessions of its history, with unemployment at an all-time high of 3.5 million.
Mr Solbes's tough stance didn't always make him universally popular at home, but he said he was not running for a popularity contest. He described his line as "orthodox" with two important objectives: to reduce the deficit to meet the Maastricht criteria and to bring down prices so as to lower interest rates.
Spanish journalism professor, Jose Antonio Martinez Soler, has known Mr Solbes for almost 30 years and remembers his tireless struggle to improve the economy. He credits Mr Solbes with the greatly improved economy which the Popular Party inherited in the 1996 elections and which contributed to their increased majority last March. "The Popular Party took over a healthy economy from Mr Solbes. It is significant that the present Economy Minister Mr Rodrigo Rato has changed virtually none of his policies," he says.
"He has a poor image, but it is one he doesn't deserve. He has a wonderful sense of humour. He also loves good food and makes a wonderful paella."
But Prof Martinez Soler describes the man as "more British than Mediterranean . . . he rarely loses his temper and remains calm in difficult situations. But he is also very stubborn, as those who have tried to make him change his mind have learned to their cost."
Current MEP Mr Carlos Westendorp, the former foreign minister, is another who praises his humour. He is also known for his phenomenal memory, as a man who rarely forgets a fact and remembers the small personal details of his staff, such as their birthdays and names of their children.
Mr Solbes is in his element in Brussels, and he is enjoying the challenge of his job. Last year he described the three Spaniards in important positions in Brussels: himself, Ms Loyola de Palacio the European Commission vice-president and Mr Javier Solana (Mr PESC) as the three tenors of the EU. "We are going to sing, and sing very loud" he warned.
Like it or not, it appears, Mr McCreevy will hear him calling if our inflation figures don't start falling into line with those of other member-states.
