Westlake, Sefcovic, Sepi and Pari at the end of a very good meetingThursday morning kicked off with a visit to the plenary from European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who has particular responsibility for inter-institutional relations, including those between the Commission and the Committee. His basic message was very similar to that of the two EP Vice-Presidents the previous day; we must work together as institutions! Moreover, he argued, the EU’s new flagship strategy for sustainable economic growth and development will only work if European citizens have a sense of ownership and that cannot be generated by institutions in Brussels alone. He therefore invited all of the Committee’s members to become ‘ambassadors of the EU 2020 strategy’, an invitation enthusiastically taken up by our President, Mario Sepi, and successive speakers. His visit to the plenary was preceded by a ‘bilateral’ meeting with our President and Irini Pari, EESC Vice-President, and in no time at all very solid and positive foundations had been laid for our future cooperation.