Once the ceremonies and formal addresses were out of the way, the plenary session got straight back to work, with a full day of debates on various opinions on a wide range of subjects, from financial participation by employees, through clean and efficient vehicles, to the implications of the sovereign debt crisis for European governance, international climate policy post-Copenhagen, changes and prospects for the metalworking industry, combating trafficking in human beings and the European Year for Active Ageing (2012). As usual, I always feel it is invidious to single any particular opinion when so many good opinions were adopted. But, also as usual, I nevertheless would like to single out an own-initiative opinion setting out guidelines for the renewal of the Community Method, authored by the President of the Employers’ Group, Henri Malosse, and the President of the Employees’ Group, Georges Dassis. The opinion, adopted by a very large majority, is a timely reminder of the efficiency of the Community Method, particularly in the context of making a success of the Europe2020 Strategy.  The plenary session finally drew to a close at around five-thirty in the afternoon, leaving the new President to reflect on an excellent start and a tired but proud Secretary General to reflect on two excellent weeks during which the administration really excelled in providing high quality support to its new members. There were a very few minor technical hitches but otherwise everything went, procedurally and administratively, like clockwork. I am particularly aware that, between them, the information days and the constitutive process involved the last-minute drafting of literally scores of documents which had to be 100 per cent accurate. We did it!