When a Secretary General of one institution visits another, similar institution there is also institutional diplomacy involved, and so it was today. I met my good friend, CESE President Jacques Dermagne, for example, and we spoke about the growing cooperation between our institutions, and I had a series of meetings with CESE members and two future members of the European Economic and Social Committee. But perhaps the greatest privilege was to meet the doyen of the CESE, 91 year-old Philippe Dechartre, a truly historical figure who was born in Truong-Thi in Vietnam in 1919, served in the resistance with François Mitterrand, was a close friend of Pierre Mendes France, worked with Charles De Gaulle and served as a minister under Georges Pompidou, Maurice Couve de Murville and Jacques Chaban Delmas. Still sharp and lucid, Dechartre is a veritable living link with history.