Sad news from Paris. Jacques Dermagne, President of the French Economic and Social Council 1999-2010 and of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions 2003-2005, died yesterday in Paris at the age of 75. I came to know Jacques well and counted him as a friend. He was very supportive when I first started as Secretary General of the European Economic and Social Council. He was absolutely convinced of the important flanking role organised civil society should play in his own country and the European Union but also in all countries, hence his passionate involvement in the International Association of Economic and Social Councils. As a person, he was warm and witty, as this little episode illustrated. Characteristically, he spent the last part of his active life in supporting humanitarian work.