Like, I am sure, many another Secretary General, I spent a fair bit of time on the telephone to colleagues yesterday and today, trying to coordinate various rescue operations and manage the unfolding situation. A group of members and colleagues stranded in Madrid finally boarded a bus this morning and will arrive back in Brussels around six tomorrow morning. A heroic administration found ways of getting most of the school students from our Friday event back to their homes but, as I write, we still have the Cypriots, Greeks and Estonians with us in Brussels. A mission of our Joint Consultative Committee with Turkey, our Round Table with China and a Monday morning hearing in Valencia have all been regretfully cancelled. Tomorrow morning I’ll be putting our business continuity plan into operation. Part of the problem is that the behaviour of the ash cloud and of the volcano that is causing it are unpredictable. In general, though, the Committee has so far coped reasonably well with this unprecedented situation. The photograph, by the way, shows our members and staff on their way back to Brussels from Madrid. My thanks to Mr Wauthier Robyns for this.