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"Brussels-based decision-maker, enjoys good food and fine wine, seeks companion for romantic evenings discussing the future of the European constitution."
They may not have the most promising dates on their books, so bosses at Eurosingles, the lonely hearts agency for European Union officials, were pleasantly surprised at the number of approaches their clients received from ordinary Belgians.
Was it that EU functionaries were just better-looking than the average civil servant? Or had drafting European agricultural directives suddenly become as glamorous and sexy as the EU had always insisted it was? It turns out, alas, that the truth is harder to take.
Clients of both sexes have asked for the site to be restricted to use by fellow EU staff after complaining that their dates were "gold-diggers", interested only in their high salaries and generous expense accounts. Club supervisors have now imposed a filter to prevent the 200 members, who earn on average £70,000 a year after tax, being pursued solely for their money.
Laura di Rosa, 52, the Eurosingles chairman, who works for the EU Council of Ministers, says that people can now sign up only if they have an email address belonging to one of the EU's own internet domains, or if they have a sponsor who is an EU employee, and who can vouch for their character.
The problems encountered by Eurosingles members highlight the void between the Eurocrat community in Brussels and the rest of the city's population. Most Eurocrats tend to hang out in cliques of their own nationality, often having little contact with local residents. As Miss di Rosa admits, the tendency of a minority of EU officials to "think they are God" does not always endear them to the Belgian taxpayers who help finance their comfortable lives.
Dating agency member Bernard Van Poucke, who is divorced and in his forties, and works for the European Commission's health, safety and consumer affairs directorate, said he dated a Belgian woman, who had joined the club, for some time, but when she broke off the romance he felt she had taken advantage of his generosity.
He also claimed that several women members had reported being misled and exploited by married Belgian men. "A woman official might be approached by a local man earning half her salary," he said. "They strike up a relationship and soon they want to go to Barcelona for the weekend, but the man says, 'It's too expensive, can you pay for me?'
"Later, when the woman suggests they live together, she finds out he has a wife. By making the club more exclusive we can avoid such cheaters."
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