During its meeting held on 18 July, marking the start of the second half of the fifth mandate of the EU Committee of the Regions, the group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe elected a new presidency team. Succeeding Flo Clucas (UK), former member of the Liverpool City Council and former ALDE-CoR president, is Bas Verkerk, mayor of the City of Delft in the Netherlands. Verkerk has been the group’s first vice-president since January 2010. He has been a member of the CoR since 2001 and a member of the CoR Bureau since 2002. Before being appointed mayor of Delft, he had held the position of alderman for finance in The Hague’s Municipal Council (1996-2004) and prior to that he had worked in the litigation department of the Dutch Council of State (1985-1996).