SIMON LUNN, long-serving Secretary-General of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO-PA), passed away this weekend. Under his leadership the NATO PA strengthened, and its profile in the international academic, parliamentary and security communities grew substantially.
Dr Dennis Sammut, Director of LINKS Europe and Managing Editor of commonspace.eu commented:
Simon was an able and sensitive leader, who expected professionalism from his team and associates, but was also most human and compassionate. Under his leadership the Nato PA grew in importance. I approached him in 2004 because I wanted him to meet the nascent South Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative. He met the MPs from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and I was struck by how patient he was with them. After that I was with him on many occasions in Baku, Yerevan and Tbilisi for successive Rose-Roth seminars, and could see that he was widely respected.
On 27 September 2019 I hosted him in The Hague, for a LINKS Europe event in the Conversations on Conflict series at the Hague Humanity Hub. His talk, on parliamentary diplomacy was instructive, his delivery passionate, and his demeanour elegant. That was Simon. He will be missed by family and friends, and the community of which he was an important member.
One of his colleagues at the NATO PA, Roberta Calorio, wrote thus on Linked In. Her words capture the man and the moment.
"Simon Lunn passed away this weekend, and I feel the need to write a few words about a man whose impact on my life deserves to be remembered.
I had the privilege of working under Simon’s leadership from 1999 to 2007. I would wake up every morning genuinely looking forward to going to the office — to see his smile and twinkling eyes, enjoy his humour, and simply be around someone who had such a wonderful love for life and for people.
Simon was one of those rare leaders who inspired you to give your very best, not because you had to, but because you wanted to. He was fair, kind, intelligent and genuinely good. You would do anything he asked because you respected him, trusted him and knew that he would always treat people fairly.
My heart is heavy knowing that such a brilliant man has left us. I feel very fortunate to have known him, and even more fortunate to have worked for him.
He will be deeply missed. I hope I will meet you again in another life, Simon."
source: commonspace.eu
Photo: Simon Lunn speaking at a LINKS Europe event in The Hague on 27 September 2019
