New President for European Humanist Federation

The new President of the European Humanist Federation is Steinar Nilsen, former President of the Human Etisk Forbund i Norge. He said at the General Assembly of the European Humanist Federation/Federation Humanist Europeene, that he looked forward to a dynamic future for the EHF/FHE. He thanked the outgoing President, Leeson, Chair of the British Humanist Association, for his three years work in laying down the foundations for others to develop upon.

The Annual General Assembly of the EHF/FHE took place in Brussels within the European Parliament building on 4 March 1994. The meeting was preceded by a talk and discussion on the work, aims and structure of the European Parliament -- with a particular stress on the lobbying process.

A member of the European Parliament's information sector spoke about the European Parliament. He suggested that much progress had been made in the stature of the European Parliament bringing it to the point where it was the European equivalent of national parliaments.

He pointed out that the approach of the European elections was an appropriate time to approach prospective MEPs. There is likely to be a wave of Labour Party representation from Britain -- providing a possibility of dialogue between MEPs and humanists. Each member country has a national information office, which should be used to obtain information about issues which might be relevant to humanists.

The Education Rapporteur is likely to change from being a Belgian Christian Democrat to being a French socialist. This might give grounds for dialogue on secularisation and denominational schools.

He urged the need for humanists to be well organised and to take lobbying seriously. The Catholics had well organised groups with their own secretariat and lobbying structure. Lobbying needed expertise, persistence and time spent being present in the institutions ready to talk to the right person at the right time.

During the General Assembly the members were presented with proposals from the Advisory Management Committee (set up in Berlin last year) for making the EHF/FHE's organisation more effective.

The two crucial points were that an executive committee should be set up with five members and that networks should be set up to deal with specific issues.

The General Assembly accepted the proposals and the Executive Committee was agreed to consist of Steinar Nilsen (President, Norway), Claude Wachtelaer (General Secretary, Belgium), Rob Tielman (Netherlands) and Klaus Suhl (Treasuerer, Germany) and Anne-Marie Franchi (France). This would mean that General Assemblies should be limited to one a year, possibly including lectures or a seminar on a relevant theme.

The networks suggested included anti-racism, women's network, Eastern Europe, gays and lesbians, education (see the Nettie Column p.3). Future networks to be organised should include bioethics, youth problems, coordination of representatives towards international institutions.

Other suggestions of the Advisory Management Committee were that there should be an attempt to approach other European Institutions such as the Council of Europe (Strasbourg) and the Committee of Security and Cooperation in Europe (Prague and Warsaw). Also that the EHF/FHE should be strengthened by appointing an employee working under a Belgian unemployment scheme. It is hoped also to establish a EHF/FHE office at the Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands in Berlin. Its aim would be to coordinate projects and also to work towards Eastern European Countries.

The proposal of the Advisory Management Committee that the EHF/FHE should be a totally independent organisation in order to be able to approach various European associations was accepted.

The secretary's report on the activities during 1993 included participation in a seminar on bioethics. A network of contacts in Brussels held monthly discussion on subjects such as 'The Free University of Brussels, European role and humanist values', 'Women's rights are humanist rights', 'Migrant policies in Europe'. Contact was made with the Secretary of the European Movement-Belgian section, which led to attendance at the General Assembly of this organisation.

The EHF/FHE was contacted by the Forward Studies Unit, led by Marc Luyckx, who is a theologian in charge of ethical aspects of European strategies. He invited the EHF/FHE to participate in a meeting with other representatives of religious and philosophical groups. A number of projects have been proposed on EHF/FHE's behalf:

Teaching for Europe, to promote democracy and shared values through humanist moral education courses.

Humanism towards the third millennium, continuation of seminar organised by Fons Elders.

Dialogue between humanists and representatives of the Muslim world to avoid a reinforcement of the European Fortress.

Youth exchanges to stimulate the European idea, to make young people more aware of the necessity of personal social involvement as a guarantee for the construction of a democratic pluralist society, with particular target on young people from the former communist countries.

Democracy through voluntary work, a training programme aimed towards the East and Central European countries.

Claude Wachtelaer, the Secretary General, concluded the annual report by stating that:

'My personal conviction is that the EHF/FHE is a necessity. The voice of the humanists (and I mean the secular humanists, with their own specificity) must be part of the European concert. But we must win two battles and prove:

a) our ability to organise ourselves to implement projects and to support effective networks

b) our capacity to study, discuss and make statements upon important European issues (the project for a European constitution, European regulations about bioethics, the problem of migrants, etc.).