Commissioner Malmström addresses the European Integration Forum

This has been one of those weeks when, as Secretary General, I can look back over the past five days with pride and happiness because the Committee’s membership and its secretariat have really worked exceptionally hard and always to a very high level of quality. On Monday there was not only the high level international conference on food security (see previous posts) but a public hearing on volunteering. The next day the Committee hosted the fifth meeting of the European Integration Forum, with high-level speakers including our own Vice-President, Anna Maria Darmanin; Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Home Affairs; Mercedes Bresso, President of the Committee of the Regions; Malika Benarab-Attou, Member of the European Parliament and Lorrie Louwes, Deputy Mayor of Rotterdam. And in addition, on consecutive days, the TEN, NAT, REX (with Pierre Vimont), INT and SOC Sections met – each a major meeting involving over a hundred participants and the preparation, debate and adoption of numerous opinions. And everything went smoothly and well. Not bad, not bad at all! Well done, everybody.