Back in Portugal

On Wednesday, I was still in China, yesterday spoke at the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions (thanks to my team for helping me to learn how to embed the video of the speech below!) - and today I am finally back to Portugal where this evening I gave the first commemoration lecture for Professor Ernani Lopes at the Portuguese Catholic University, a man who has made great contributions to Portugal. Now I am home and will use the weekend with my family to rest a little after the long travels of the last two weeks. This rest is very much needed - but at the beginning of the week I will be back to Brussels, for instance to meet on Tuesday with Mr Stoiber, the Chairman of the High Level Group on Administrative Burden Reduction - which has the important task to propose possibilities to reduce red tape that slows down economic growth in Europe. So I wish you all a very pleasant weekend!

 

Warm Lisbon and a speech at AIP

I am in Lisbon and I am glad the weather here is much warmer than in ice-cold Brussels. This evening I will receive the honorary membership of AIP, the Industry Association of Portugal. It is like getting an honorary doctor - just from the industry. In return, I will give a speech to underline the important challenges for Portugal and the whole European economy.

Europa honoris causa

I used the occasion of a ceremony in which I received a honorary doctor from the Technical University of Lisbon yesterday (my second honorary doctor this month) to call for the EU member states to give up some more of their sovereignty to make Europe stronger - one could say a Europa honoris causa!