Today was a tale of two dense  but highly productive meetings. In the morning the EESC’s Enlarged Presidency (composed of the President, two Vice-Presidents, three Group Presidents and the SG) met to perform its traditional, if informal, role of preparing for next Tuesday’s Bureau meeting but also to consider a number of more general political matters, such as preparations for the hosting of Croatian observers at the Committee’s meetings and the follow-up to the European Parliament’s draft discharge resolution. There was also an administrative item on the agenda. The SG presented the administration’s five-year management plan and a very constructive exchange of views ensued. In the afternoon, the Section Presidents joined the meeting (turning it into what is informally called the ‘Enlarged Enlarged Presidency’ – who can find me a picture to illustrate that?) in order to discuss the Committee’s input into the European Commission’s 2013 work plan and engage in a discussion about enhancing the Committee’s own working methods. The discussions were satisfyingly rich and constructive.