Philippe Busquin, the European Union's (EU) Commissioner for Research, visited the ICTP on 16 February as part of a one-day tour of scientific institutions in Trieste. The Commissioner met with ICTP Director Miguel Virasoro and members of ICTP's research groups to discuss ways that the EU and ICTP could work together to promote scientific cooperation between developing countries and Europe. Two areas of particular interest to the Commissioner were the ICTP Training and Research in Italian Laboratories (TRIL) programme and the Centre's involvement in the EU's PROMISE programme. For example, the scope of TRIL could be enlarged to provide opportunities for scientists from the developing world to conduct research not just in institutions and industries in Italy but throughout Europe. In addition, the PROMISE programme on predictability and variability of monsoons and the agricultural and hydrological impacts of climate change, which currently involves the participation of ICTP's Physics of Weather and Climate Group under the coordination of the University of Reading (UK), could serve as an administrative umbrella for cooperation among European and developing-world scientists on issues related to climate change. The Centre, with its long and successful track record in assisting scientists from the South, could play a key role in such efforts.