Every Monday morning I chair a meeting of the Committee’s management board. A top point on every agenda is the preparation of the next meeting of the Committee’s Bureau (12 July) and its plenary session (13-14 July). The July session promises to be particularly heavy. In addition to a large number of opinions to be debated and adopted the Committee will be hosting no less than three VIPs – by coincidence (we are at the beginning of the Polish Presidency), all of them Polish: Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament; Waldemar Pawlak, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister; and Janusz Lewandowski, the member of the European Commission with responsibility for the budget. Managing such a rich and heavy agenda will require some procedural choreography but the session promises to be very interesting and rewarding, with our guests debating such themes as sustainable growth and, evidently, the 2014-20 multi-annual financial framework for the EU.