The EU Committee of the Regions (CoR) has appointed Christine Chapman (PES, UK) and Nichi Vendola (PES, Italy) as political coordinators for its ‘Europe 2020’ Monitoring Platform. Chapman, who is also the CoR’s rapporteur on 2020, will focus on competitiveness and innovation. Vendola will concentrate on the sustainability of EU policies and climate change. The CoR platform, which involves more than 120 partners in the 27 member states, was set up under the Lisbon strategy and is continuing its monitoring activities with the 2020 strategy, in which the local and regional authorities wish to be more closely involved. www.cor.europa.eu/europe2020