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Editorial:
Christian Vandermotten, President of EUGEO and of the Belgian Royal Geographical Society
The idea of creating an association of the geographical societies of the EU countries
was launched in 1994 by our Italian friends. The publication of the EUGEO bylaws
in 1997 made that project official. When we met in Rome in 1994 for our first
contact, 6 Societies were represented, gathering Belgian, German, Dutch, Portuguese,
British and, of course, Italian representatives. Today, EUGEO counts 15 members: all the
Europe of Fifteen’s countries, except Luxembourg and Greece, while both Italy and
Spain have 2 member associations.
Such international rapprochements, whose primary purpose consists in making the
geography of Europe and, simultanously, the interest of geography better understood by
the European decision-makers and civil society, have to be driven on, from the start, by
a strong wish to succeed but, at the same time, they have to progress carefully, without
hurting the sensibilities, and with a high regard for the uniqueness and the features of
the different national organisations. In every country, the geographical societies have
completely different backgrounds, practices and positions. We had to learn to know one
another.
Nowadays, the process is on the right track. This is why, as EUGEO president, I am only
too pleased to sign the Editorial of a special issue of Belgeo on the occasion of the IGU
Glasgow Congress. This issue is one of the first concrete expressions of the work
accomplished by EUGEO: the presentation by the member Societies of their situation
and of the state of geography in their respective countries summarizes the work of reciprocal
understanding achieved up to now.
But this is obviously only a preliminary step. Indeed, I hope the activities of EUGEO will
soon produce new concrete results: a validated presentation of the European geography
on the EUGEO web site, providing links with the national monographies on the web
sites of the different member Societies; the organisation, in 2007, by our Dutch partners
of the KNAG, of a conference that should offer the opportunity of a dialogue between
geographers and the potential users of the applications of geography, in particular the
European authorities; new joint publications or exchanges of papers between the journals
of the member Societies; etc.
Now that its structures are well established, EUGEO is also ready to open up to other
Societies from countries in which the structuration of geographical societies and of the
world of geographers is more complex. We are especially eager and hopeful, on the
occasion of this Congress, to welcome the Societies from the new member States of the
European Union.
Before concluding this editorial, I would like to express my warmest thanks to the first 2
presidents and EUGEO pioneers: Henri Nicolaï and Jean-Robert Pitte, as well as to the
2 successive EUGEO secretaries: Armando Montanari, who played a key part from the
very beginning, and today Rita Gardner, thanks to whom the EUGEO secretariat can
make the most of the impressive and effecient logistics of the Royal Geographical
Society (with IBG).
Let’s hope that EUGEO’s future will be just as brilliant and will contribute to the valorisation
and the diffusion of the geographical thought in the same way as the great geographical
Societies founded in the 19th century in the different European countries did.
Christian Vandermotten
President of EUGEO
and of the Belgian Royal Geographical Society
