The EESC’s Budget Group met in parallel with the President’s conference and I had to perform that most difficult of tricks – being in two places at one time. Fortunately, the meetings were in adjacent rooms. I darted back several times during the day but I was happily with the Budget Group when it unanimously approved the draft 2010 budget. Readers of this blog will know that I have been trying to put in place a new procedure for the establishment of the Committee’s draft budgets and also a new relationship between the administration and the EESC’s members. In that context, the Budget Group’s decision today was of great symbolic importance. ‘You’re on the right track,’ was the basic message.