EUROPEAN
PLATFORM
During
the General Assembly held on April 7th, 2000, in Platja d’Aro, attended by 400
retired people from Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal
and the United Kingdom, after verifying that the lack of coordination between
the European associations of the elderly makes us less efficient when dealing
before the European Union, we agreed on getting in touch with other
organisations and promoting a meeting with them, in order to study together the
possibility of joining our efforts to defend, with a single and more powerful
voice, the dignity and the rights of the elderly in
Europe.

In
order to accomplish this, during our last €uromeeting, held in ISDABE last May
14th, there was a monographic meeting under the motto 'A single voice in Europe'
- 'We can do it together; scattered, we are ignored'. We invited the most
important European organisations of the elderly. During the meeting, we could
listen to Dr. Giuseppe BERTOLDI, President of F.I.A.P.A. (Fédération
Internationale des Associations des Personnes Agées); professor Antonino
Liberatore, National Secretary of U.S.P.U.R. (Unione Sindicale Professori
Universitari di Ruolo); Mr. Eduardo Rodríguez Rovira, President of C.E.O.M.A.
(Confederación Española de Organizaciones de Mayores); monsieur René LETERRE,
President of the French Federation of Retired Staff from Savings Banks, member
of the Social and Economic Council of France, and Vicepresident of the
Confederation Française de Retraités (this is the result of the merger of the
three big French confederations of retired people), and also Mr. Francisco
Sanabria Celis, President of A.S.P.U.R. (Association of Retired University
Professors).
At
the same time we were talking about this, we found out that the Platforme AGE
(Plate-forme Europèenne de Personnes Agèes) bad been created, formed by P.E.O.S.
(Plate-forme Européenne des Organisations de Seniors), F.I.A.P.A. (Fédération
Internationale des Associations de Personnes Agées) and Eurolink AGE; we agreed
unanimously on becoming a member of AGE.
A
meeting is already organised, and it will be held in Brussels, December 7-8. The
aim of this meeting is the launching of the Platform AGE during the first days
of 2002. We are already a member of AGE; in this way, we will be more useful to
our people. We will keep you informed.
MODIFICATION
OF STATUTES
The liberal trend invading Europe has transformed
savings banks from many countries (Belgium, United Kingdom, Italy...) in
commercial banks and, in France, in cooperative banks; that is the reason why
the associations of pensioners from savings banks in these countries have had to
adapt to these changes and, in many cases, their members come both from savings
banks and banks. In order to adapt our Group to these changes, the General
Assembly held a meeting in Lisbon on October 31st, 2000, and agreed on a
modification of statutes that includes a new name, European Group of Retired
Staff from Savings Banks, Banks and Similar Entities. The new address is Rue
Marie Thérèse, 11, Brussels.
NEW
MEMBERS
The
following associations have joined lately our European Group: HBK-Senioren-club,
from Belgium; Association of Retired Staff from the Swedbank, Sweden, which will
be the Group’s representative in the Nordic countries; and ASPUR (Association of
Retired University Professors), which had been cooperating with the Group since
the International Congress of Alicante in 1999, organised by the CAM and our
Group, helped by the University of Alicante, and sponsored by the UNESCO. We
want to give all of them a most warm welcome.
EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE
