Today it is precisely two years since I became Secretary General of the European Economic and Social Committee, and thus also two years since I started this blog. The time has gone by at alarming speed whilst, paradoxically, many of the things that I wanted to do have taken longer than I had expected. Nevertheless, on balance I can look back with some satisfaction, I think. I have enjoyed a close and very productive relationship with the outgoing President and the enlarged Presidency (and will, I am confident, enjoy the same good relationship with their successors) and have worked hard to maintain a good and friendly working relationship with our members. The Committee has enjoyed a number of high profile successes and the Lisbon Treaty’s potential is beginning to be realised. The new establishment plan for the administration is fully in place and, notably, I am now flanked by two Deputy Secretaries-General, thus enabling me to avoid the pitfalls of excessively centralised responsibility. Whilst all financial activities have been regrouped within a single directorate, financial responsibility has been successfully decentralised to the various spending actors and the system works well. We have been steadily modernising the administration through such measures as training and the introduction of flexi-time, and tele-working is not far away. More generally, we have a high level of satisfaction among our work force and a good atmosphere in house. I certainly don’t claim to have achieved all of this alone (I am particularly spoilt by the excellence of my secretariat) , but I think that, notwithstanding all of the daily distractions of ‘events’ and firefighting, I have managed to keep my eyes fixed on the strategic objectives of serving our members better and of exploiting the twin wealths of our members’ authenticity and our administration’s rich potential. Above all, though, what I’d like to note is that the job is a privilege and a pleasure.