Our second Commissioner was Dacian Ciolos, who came to speak about CAP reform. His proposals will be tabled in November and at the moment he is listening carefully to all stakeholders, including the Committee’s members. All speakers in the debate were agreed on the need for greater transparency and continued support for smaller-scale farms. A strong speaker in the debate was EESC member Lutz Ribbe (Various Interests Group, Germany) who authored the Committee’s opinion on CAP reform (adopted at the previous plenary session). As Lutz himself pointed out, the fact that a German ecologist should be the author of such an opinion was in itself a good advertisement for the Committee’s working methods.