Thanks to the hospitality of the European Economic and Social Committee’s Employees’ Group and its President, Georges Dassis (in the centre of the photograph), I spent all of today in an extraordinary meeting of the Group in Paris, at the headquarters of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council, devoted to the timely theme of the future of Europe. The morning’s keynote speaker was former European Commission President (and my former boss), Jacques Delors. His – characteristically incisive but uncharacteristically dark – analysis was followed by a panel discussion with representatives of the major French trades unions (Bernard Thibault, Secretary General of the CGT, Yves Veyrier, Confederal Secretary of the FO, Marcel Grignard, Deputy Secretary General of the CFDT, Philippe Louis, Confederal President of the CFTC) together with Giglielmo Epifani, President of the Bruno Trentin Assocation. In the afternoon we heard how a low-carbon industrial policy could help Europe out of the crisis, and the meeting was closed by: the President of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Jean-Paul Delevoye; the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Staffan Nilsson; and the President of the Employees’ Group, Georges Dassis. It is impossible to summarise a day’s debate in a short post, so I’ll finish this with three short ‘soundbites’. First, Jacques Delors; ‘without memory there can be no future.’ Second, Staffan Nilsson; ‘if we don’t believe in our future why should anybody else?’ Third, Georges Dassis; ‘our leaders have a choice between a return to the past or a reaffirmation of the future.’