This morning, together with my counterpart in the Committee of the Regions, Gerhard Stahl, I participated in a very significant meeting of the Political Monitoring Group which is a political-level joint body that oversees the two Committees’ management of their Joint Services. As I never tire of pointing out, the Committees have set a shining example of how to realise synergies and economies of scale by pooling their resources in such areas as translation, logistics and buildings. Today’s political monitoring group approved a largely positive mid-term review of the Cooperation Agreement (which runs for seven years in total) and it also approved the text of a joint pamphlet that will show not only how the Committees achieve economies of scale through pooled resources but also how, by working together, they realise synergies with other institutions. It was, then, a highly significant and very positive meeting.