On 21‐22 January, an informal retreat of the EU‐12 was convened by Ambassador Frances Lanitou, the Head of Development Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cyprus. Ten out of the twelve were there, including Hungary, who currently has the Presidency, Poland, who are next, and Cyprus, of course, who have the Presidency in the second half of 2012. 2011‐12 will be the years of leadership by the new MS for the EU. We were only missing Malta and Latvia. Simon Maxwell and Mikaela Gavas from the Overseas Development Institute helped facilitate the retreat.