After the plenary speech and debate, we hosted the visiting French party to lunch back at our Committee’s headquarters Jacques Delors building. The photograph gives an impression of the size of the delegation and, more importantly, of the good atmosphere that reigned throughout the visit. To me, the French Council is our benevolent uncle. The European Economic and Social Committee, created by the 1957 Treaty of Rome, was closely modelled on the French Council, created in 1927, and I like to think of us as a favoured nephew. Today’s enthusiastic and entirely positive interactions brought confirmation of that perception.