The second opinion on this afternoon’s agenda that demonstrated the EESC’s consensus-building mechanisms hard at work was an opinion on genetically modified organisms in the EU (rapporteur = Martin Siecker, Employees’ Group, the Netherlands) where, rather courageously, I think, the Committee sought – successfully (by which I mean adoption of the opinion by a large majority) – to provide orientation for the future debate that will surround forthcoming legislative proposals. After a rich debate in which, among others, farming, consumer, environmentalist, business and scientific points of view were all cogently expressed, the Committee adopted an opinion that highlights various ethical, ecological, technlogical, socio-economic, legal and policy questions. The opinion provides an excellent tour d’horizon that is also, in my view, a tour de force.