LETTER
FROM THE PRESIDENT - Nr
7
Malta, 15th December 2016.
Dear Colleagues,
Dear Friends,
During this time
of year families and friends usually come together to celebrate these special
festivities and to company of each other as family and friends. It will also be time to anticipate the
celebrations of the coming New Year. A
New Year with multiple hopes for a better future and a more prosperous and
peaceful world.
A better future
is always we wished for, especially after this year’s most horrible atrocities
and terrorisms attacks that occurred throughout Europe, mostly in France,
Brussels and Turkey. Atrocities which were and are condemned by all who believe
in a free and just world. Freedoms of all aspects in Faiths – Democracy –
Justice – Equality and a better way of life, is essential to each and every
citizen. All of us must be vigilant to
protect the values of the former cry initiated by the French Revolution, those
famous three elements of “Liberty”, “Justice” and “Fraternity”.
Humanity has, in
one way or another, always survived through time. It will also survive now, no matter how
atrocious events may occur. We must also be vigilant to uphold the European’s
Union values of upholding our integral Unions between us and not let the
rightists’ extreme elements disturb these essential democratic values which
Europe has learned after so many useless World Wars. So we must strive for these precious values
that we as Former Parliamentarians hold.
Our Association has just finished its colloquium about the Challenges of
Immigration, graciously hosted by the French Association is Lyon. An important
document so ably constructed by our colleague Mrs Ilona Graenitz which said
document was distributed to Members of respective Parliamentarians and
Institutions.
An interesting
inclusion in our Final Declaration was also the aspect of Climate Change
Refugees, an aspect which is in its initiation but can have a vast aspect on
future generations.
Also
was the most interesting talk held in the afternoon by the Honourable Mr Etienne
Blanc, First Vice-President of the Regional Council Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and
special guest speakers Mr Abdellatif Chaouite, anthropologist and Mr Philippe
Hanus, historian. Merit to the French
Association for hosting this event in the wonderful city of Lyon which
appreciation is duly merited.
We as Former
Parliamentarians, who through our graciously given lifetime gathering vast
personal experiences, either good or bad, can and are able to collectively
share our knowledge to the benefit of Mankind.
That was one of
the reasons that our Association awarded Merit Certificates to two of the most
active Members, Messer’s Jacques Chaumont and Mr Nils Diederich, who for many
years so ably contributed their experience to the benefit of one and all.
This coming year
our Association is also preparing to honour Mr Franco Coccia and Mrs Karin
Junker with these “Certificates of Merit” for their most extensive intelligent and
continuous contributions through long years as associates. It will be an honour for me to be the one to
present these certificates to this wonderful Lady and Gentleman which honour
they so richly deserve.
As promised when
submitting my views on the Presidency contest I stressed that both our European
Association as well as the individual local Associations, will be in a better
position to participate in our meetings if financially supported by their
National Governments. To this aim I wrote and have once again re-wrote to the
respective Mr Speakers (now even copied to the respective Finance and Prime
Ministers) for financial support only to those Associations who had indicated they
did not receive any support or just a minimal support.
This I will keep on trying till the end of my Presidency.
I also believe
that for our European Association to function more efficiently, as well as for
our secretariat, to have a fair deal from doing work on a voluntary basis. Financial assistance have to be acquired from
the European Union or the Council of Europe.
The European
Union reply by Mr Schulz was not positive. So we have to find other sources and try, try
and try again.
When it comes to
colloquies, I feel that the Declarations are too long in their final versions. Whenever a person sees too many written pages,
one is opt to just discard the report. I
wish to put forward a proposal to the Associations if in future instead of
having Colloquies we should discuss an alternative proposal, that of holding
Seminars or Conferences with a final short version of our report.
This is just an
idea which needs some thought and discussed by the Bureau to see if there is
approval or disapproval, and in case of an agreement in approval, this subject
will be brought in front of the General Assembly.
For the coming year our Association has
also a busy schedule. We have the
following program:
a)
Paris Bureau Meeting and
General Assembly
b)
Dublin Bureau Meeting
c)
Malta’s Seminar/Conference on
“Stateless Persons”
d)
In addition Germany is inviting
a delegate to Berlin to celebrate the 40
years of founding their Association
e)
Poland is also inviting some delegates’
representatives for their annual conference.
So all in all
next year is also full of interesting events in which will take part our
European Association and to put another
step forward in our quest for a better world.
Our Stockholm
seminar on the “Arctic” was very successful, and this not only for the
theme. Our Association notes the
assistance given by Mr Rune Rydén for his mediation to entice Finland as an observer
to our fold. We sincerely hope that our Association will soon have the honour
to enlist them to become a full member in the very near future. This will
enhance our Association with a more Nordic vision.
As a matter of
fact the Finnish Association through their President Mr Markus Aaltonen, has
just applied to have an observers’ status for the coming two years with the
prospection of becoming full Members after.
This is
wonderful news.
Lino DeBono
President.
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