News Release

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso attended a reception held 1 October to celebrate the official opening of RAND Europe's Brussels office. Constantijn van Oranje-Nassau, a senior RAND researcher and head of the new office, welcomed Barroso and guests from the European Commission, wider EU institutions, private and charitable sectors, and both current and former representatives of EU member states and the United States.

President Barroso welcomed RAND Europe's initiative to open an office in Brussels. He commented that RAND Europe's objective research and analysis complement the Commission's priority to develop better and less burdensome regulation.

James A. Thomson, president and CEO of the RAND Corporation and chair of RAND Europe, and Jonathan Grant, president of RAND Europe, talked about the 60-year legacy of the RAND Corporation and the future ambitions of RAND Europe.

“We are delighted that President Barroso and his many colleagues from the Commission are able to join us in celebrating the opening of our Brussels office,” said Grant.

About RAND Europe

RAND Europe continues a tradition of innovative problem solving started by the RAND Corporation 60 years ago. Its wide-ranging and interdisciplinary research covers a range of areas including healthcare, science and technology, defence and security, transport and choice modeling, and the information economy. Expertise in the area of evaluation, audit and strategy provides crucial support to a range of organisations from various Directorates General of the European Commission to the United Kingdom's National Audit Office. RAND Europe often pioneers new methodologies to tackle the most complex problems. Its "ideas incubator," the Emerging Areas team, identifies and researches pressing policy challenges in areas such as social cohesion, population ageing, migration and economic competitiveness.

RAND Europe's Spotlight on 2007 is available at this link: http://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/CP531-2007/.