I am just back from today’s meeting of the inaugural plenary session where Staffan Nilsson, a Swedish member and outgoing President of the various interests group, was elected the new President of the Committee. The two Vice-Presidents elected to serve alongside him are Anna Maria Darmanin, a Maltese member of the employees group, and Jacek Krawczyk, a Polish member of the employers group. When I began my career in the European Union, Sweden, Poland and Malta were not EU members. This, I thought to myself, is a graphic example of how the recent waves of enlargement have been so rapidly consolidated, for I have not the slightest doubt that the incoming team will be a worthy successor to the outgoing one. Since I served briefly under Dimitris Dimitriadis at the beginning of my mandate, Staffan will be my third 
President as Secretary General. The Lisbon Treaty has effectively extended the length of each presidency by six months but still, a presidency goes so quickly and I know that Staffan, like Mario before him, will want to hit the ground running. Chocks away!
Congratulation to our new presidency!
With half a sad eye though, because it seems as I can never be there when the EESC makes historical steps recently 😉
At the last plenary of the past presidency, I couldn’t be there and the same this time again.
But on the other hand, in both cases I had the pleasure to discuss with representatives of EU member states about the use of technological means for better and participatory governance and bi-directional communication between governments and citizens.
So in a way, something that affects us all, and certainly in the committee where the civil society has a home!
I am also looking forward to work with this new presidency!
Let’s go!