You, the readers, who are currently reading this bulletin, are very likely to have noticed the very significant number of this edition - No. 10.000! We, who publish it every day, may not even have noticed it but some of our loyal and attentive readership has congratulated us and encouraged us to continue. Some of the praise we have received is (almost) enough to make us blush. We want to thank them, above all, and let them know that their kind attention has been touching and their encouragement has done us a power of good. These readers have informed us that despite the different upheavals over recent years in the European news arena, we are still useful. In the beginning, more than half a century ago, Agence Europe was practically the only source of information about the activities of the European institutions. If someone wanted to know what was going on, they had to read our publication. The European Commission is now delighted to be able to produce hundreds of pages in a single day, which are undoubtedly crucially important to the different milieu concerned but difficult to read for those seeking an overall view of what is happening in the European Union. National press bodies obviously highlight action that is of interest to their individual countries. The politically engaged media presents events from their own point of view, which means that they generally welcome decisions that suit their political convictions and attack those that do not. Our goal is to continue to present Community activities as they actually are and by illustrating the divergences and different interpretations. In the past, third countries, including those that over time have become member states, had almost no direct daily access to European news. Obtaining the “conclusions” of a summit was always complicated. I can recall the ambassador of a non-EU country (now a member state) who used to send his chauffeur round to us to have the post-Council special issue and draft “conclusions” hot off the press, without having to wait until the following day for the post to arrive. Now, everyone can have them as soon as the meeting is finished. Everything has therefore changed - if our previous slogan was “if you want to know what's going on at the European institutions, read Europe” our current slogan would now be “if you want to have a daily overview of what is really happening in the EU, read Europe”. Our 10,000th issue is, above all, symbolic because it does not actually correspond to the number of bulletins published since we began. Initially, we had a bulletin focusing on the activities of the ECSC - the only European Community at the start - which was followed by the co-existence of two publications until the merging of the European Commission, the ECSC High Authority and the Euratom Commission. Several thousand issues had already been published leading up to 1 January 1968, the date of the first edition (issue No.1) in our “new series”. This figure now stands at No. 10,000 in the same series. We are happy to celebrate this with you. (F.R./transl.rh)