When Thomas Schmidt joined the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) in July 2020, the Saxon minister was already familiar with European work. For example, through his previous position: from 2014 to 2019, he was responsible for the environment and agriculture in Saxony. „I believe that European agriculture and also environmental policy are the now most regulated areas at the European level,“ he explains. Events in Brussels are almost a home game for him: „I was always preceded by the reputation of being in Brussels as often as my cabinet colleagues as a whole.“