Representatives from the shortlisted cities were interviewed by a Jury which comprised members from the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the European Environment Agency, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Covenant of Mayors Office and the European Environmental Bureau.

26. Calls on the Commission to examine the most effective ways of increasing synergies on the ground; suggests, in this respect, that consideration be given to the possibility of allowing the Member States to choose to have a single operational programme per region or a multi-regional operational programme in the framework of macro-regional strategies encompassing different funds (ERDF, ESF, Cohesion Fund, EAFRD and EFF) with a single managing authority, paying particular attention to the regions' contributions to a decentralised approach and to giving the regions more autonomy and flexibility with regard to participation in their own strategies and upgrading regional and local levels of ...[+++] administration; suggests that the national management authorities in the Member States draw up future operational programmes geared as closely as possible to local and regional objectives;

26. Calls on the Commission to examine the most effective ways of increasing synergies on the ground; suggests, in this respect, that consideration be given to the possibility of allowing the Member States to choose to have a single operational programme per region or a multi-regional operational programme in the framework of macro-regional strategies encompassing different funds (ERDF, ESF, Cohesion Fund, EAFRD and EFF) with a single managing authority, paying particular attention to the regions’ contributions to a decentralised approach and to giving the regions more autonomy and flexibility with regard to participation in their own strategies and upgrading regional and local levels of ...[+++] administration; suggests that the national management authorities in the Member States draw up future operational programmes geared as closely as possible to local and regional objectives;

36. Calls on the WTO to help the LDCs set up local committees, consisting of representatives of business and civil society, officials and trained local experts, who should assess for themselves whether the trade and financial rules meet their real needs;

On a point of clarification before we continue with our next witness, is your consolidation of the buildings in London a net amount?

We did some significant evaluations of our businesses, common purpose procurement, the open bidding service, the effectiveness of our standing offers, our contracting for temporary help service, and client satisfaction with space consolidation.