Marc De Buck, gedeputeerde Annie Mervillie, gemeenteraadslid

It is a great honour for me as an executive member of the Provincial Government of East Flanders in charge of Economic Affairs and International relations to welcome you all here at this Monday Evening Seminar at the Council chamber of the Province of East-Flanders. We are also honoured to receive H.E. Mr. Jacques de Watteville, Ambassador, Head of Mission of Switzerland to the EU.

I would like to thank professor Maresceau, Director of the European Institute and coordinator of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the Ghent University. Within 6 years, the Monday Evening Lectures have become an important concept and tradition, Mr Ambassador, you are the 18th Ambassador we can welcome to this forum.

From the start, in 2003, there was a great interest in the first place from the " Diplomatic Corps". The Ambassadors have always been willing to express their concerns about their own country. In the past this has lead to sometimes very exciting discussions. Beside this, there is a high quality public that is very knowledgeable about European matters. It's a challenge for each Ambassador to be confronted with future specialists.

Even the European Commission could not fail to notice the quality of these Monday Evening Lectures. In the academic community, the Jean Monnet label is recognised as a sign of excellence. Projects are selected on the basis of their academic merits following a process of rigorous and independent peer review. So we are very proud to tell you that this project was one of the 50 selected projects amongst 800 others.

For us, as a provincial government, the European message is very important. We are appointed by the European, Federal and Flemish authorities to be a leading actor and we are working on that by means of different European (cross border) programmes such as Interreg ,the Efro funded objective 2 programme and programmes for rural development.

Moreover, the Belgian provinces are appointed by the European Commission and the Belgian Government to be in charge of the communication and promotion of the EU. The ambition is to try to close the gap between the EU and its citizens. With the support of the Commission and the Belgian Government, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the provincial government has started up a Europe Direct Relay which is not only coordinating the information and communication on the EU but also organising on regular base activities for different target groups to increase the public awareness on European matters. This Monday Evening lecture is one of these activities. But let's focus on this evening program.

It is obvious that due to the recent financial crisis the world came into an important transformation. This forces organisations and governments to focus into certain new processes and review their positions towards the national states.

The case of Switzerland, Mr Ambassador, is a really interesting one, in my opinion. We are really excited to hear your point of view.

But before I give you the floor, Mr Ambassador, I would like to give the word to Professor Maresceau.

Thank you for your attention.