THE EHF arose from discussions at the IHEU Congress in Brussels in 1990. There was then extensive work on the constitution and the relation between the new federation and the HEU and its part within European institutions. The EHF took shape during the IHEU Board meeting in Prague in 1991 and was formally constituted at its first General Assembly in Brussels on 12 October 1991. Founding organisations include those from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Norway, and Britain.

The full title is EHFFHE -- European Humanist Federation/Federation Humaniste Europeene.

• to carry out educational, scientific and cultural action in order to promote a humanist vision of cultural, social and ethical values in Europe

• to promote exchanges among members and the circulation of information and experience which could contribute to the development of humanist values in Europe as well as to social and cultural progress

• to propose such European legislation as is likely to facilitate the development and promotion of the activities of member organisations in Europe

• to promote the development of cooperation among member organisations.

Some people might wonder why it is necessary to have a new regional organisation when there is already an international humanist organisation. In IHEU's representation of humanism in Europe it was perceived that institutions such as the European Commission and the Council of Europe tended to give priority to organisations based in Europe. IHEU being a world organisation was not thought the ideal vehicle for communicating humanist concerns to the European institutions. Therefore it was decided to set up the EHF.

That's the idea. The interests of the European institutions might be such as to attract funding for the work we might do on projects which they support. There has not been much progress with this so far, but there is funding on areas of interest to us such as bio-ethics of which religious institutions have taken advantage. Humanists should be treated fairly alongside the religious interests.

No, it is quite intimately related to it. It is a rather special example of a regional organisation within IHEU. There are two classes of membership: European members of IHEU, who have a vote; and consultative membership, which is open to any other humanist organisation. Already EHF membership includes about 20 associations from 11 different countries.

Yes, geographical Europe up to the Urals is included. We have had a debate about the application of the Israeli Association of Secular Humanistic Judaism. We decided to admit them as a full member and to admit any other non-European organisation as a consultative member.

They wish to support the aims of the EHF (see above) which have a European slant. For example we are all interested in promoting a humanist culture, in developing cooperation among member organisations, and in developing appropriate legislation. There is confusion in some quarters at present as to whether Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights covers so-called nonbelievers as well as believers. There are considerable semantic problems with different meanings for words such as 'believer' and 'atheist' in different languages.

So organisations will wish to support the work going on to protect the rights of non-believers in Europe. There is also a working party on education in Europe, and on European culture -- the status of humanism, as opposed to Christianity, in European culture.

There is a longstanding division between the rather anti-clerical socialist movements in France and Italy and the more individualistic ex-Protestant humanist movement in places like the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Are these two wings going to work closely together?

It is true that there is this historical difference. But it was the intention of the meeting between the EHF and French organisations on 8 November 1992 to exchange views and see whether the time had come to build bridges. There is a move for some of the French groups to join the EHF and even to start using the word humanism more frequently. The broad objectives and sentiment between the two is very positive.

I would hope to see by then that we will have achieved Non-Governmental Organisation status both in the Council of Europe and with other appropriate European institutions. The issue has arisen with NGOs that they are supposed to be independent of each other, and with EHF as a section of IHEU you cannot have both as NGOs. However, we are investigating how the Catholic organisations have got round that. There are quite a few of them with NGO status, while remaining linked to Rome..

Looking ahead ten years, we start out with ambitious aims, but on the whole there is a gap between our means and our ambitions. We hope to promote a humanist culture and a wide appreciation of it and an identity with the values which we espouse. We hope to see a vastly greater number of humanist organisations allied to IHEU through the EHE

We hope to be a credible voice in influential forums which discuss European and world issues, to have secured particular humanist rights in regard to abortion, sexuality and so on, to have seen the cooling of the temperature in the Balkan conflict, and seen peace restored in Europe, where all races and cultures can coexist and join the commonwealth of the open society.