For the employee participation bodies, 2017 was all about the choices NS made in its strategy. The employee participation bodies at NS had an important role in coming up with ideas and advice on the implementation of these choices. An important change was the new setup for direct reporting lines to the Executive Board, which should help improve operational and financial performance at NS. The decision on this new setup for the main organisational structure also led to a change in the employee participation structure at NS. As a consequence, procedural agreements were made with the employee participation bodies in order to obtain an appropriate employee participation structure. Systematic agreements were made with the Central Works Council this year about its involvement in the operations abroad of the subsidiary Abellio. These agreements will be documented in a covenant, which will safeguard cooperation in the future in this regard.