The National Assembly for Wales will hold its 1,000th Plenary meeting on today (8 October).
The Presiding Officer, Dame Rosemary Butler AM, will mark the historic event by looking forward to the next 1,000 sessions.
She used the occasion to reaffirm her call for Westminster to further strengthen the Assembly's ability to scrutinise legislation and hold the Welsh Government to account.
Central to her vision for the future enhancement of the Assembly's work are three key themes:
- To make it easier for everyone to understand the powers that the Assembly has by moving to a reserved powers model like Scotland;
- Sovereignty of the Assembly so that Westminster should not be able to decide the future of the Assembly or to control decisions on matters such as the Assembly's name and electoral arrangements; and
- Increase the number of AMs to reflect the Assembly's enhanced responsibility and potential future responsibilities.
"Today marks the 1,000th Plenary meeting of the Assembly since it was established in 1999," Dame Rosemary said.
"There are 19 of us here today who were also present at that first meeting on 18 May 1999.
"A lot has happened over the past 1,000 meetings, and today's Assembly has moved on in many ways from the one that first met 15 years ago.
"I very much hope that over the course of the next 1,000 meetings, the Assembly will see many more changes and that we will have a constitutional settlement that gives the Assembly the powers and resources it needs to represent the people of Wales and change their lives for the better."