Mission

Founded in 1946 by Paul Van Zeeland of Belgium, the Pole Josef Retinger and Pieter Kerstens of the Netherlands - who were rapidly joined by other European figures including the Frenchman Edmond Giscard d'Estaing, Harold Butler from the United Kingdom and the German Herman Abs -, the European League for Economic Cooperation will celebrate its 60^th anniversary in 2006.

It has never been a mass movement, although it was present at The Hague in 1948 among the founding organisations of the European Movement. Nor is it a lobby defending the interests of a given sector or particular profession, nor yet a think-tank capable of mobilising teams of researchers. ELEC could be described as an "intellectual pressure group" in the service of the European project, anxious to carry out its mission in complete independence of private interests or the public authorities. This mission includes the European education of its members by circulating information among them and by organising debates on the great European themes.

ELEC's members, in the sixteen countries of Europe in which it is currently represented, mainly come from the economic and financial world, but they also include senior national and European officials, and people from academic and political backgrounds. Together, they form a European network with significant expertise and influence. ELEC thus has advisory status at the Council of Europe and on the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

To be sure, Europe today has a variety of clubs, associations and groups pursuing similar aims. ELEC stands out because of the very diverse nature of its membership, the wide range of their interests, and a particular concern for independence in formulating their opinions. This gives its internal debates an openness and frankness which participants find intellectually stimulating, even if unanimous agreement is sometimes difficult to achieve. But it is this diversity and independence that prompts ELEC to ask the right questions and, in the answers it provides, to give priority to the common European interest.

Organisation and operation

First and foremost, ELEC hinges on its national sections, which enjoy considerable autonomy in recruiting their members, assembling their financial resources and organising their own activities. It is mainly through these sections that members are attracted to ELEC and participate in its funding. Associate member status is available to residents of countries where ELEC does not have a national section.

The Central Council, which is ELEC's managing body, brings together the presidents of national sections in activity twice a year under the leadership of the International President. It alone is empowered to adopt resolutions in ELEC's name and to circulate them by whatever means it chooses. This is also the forum in which the working programmes of ELEC's international commissions are debated and approved, and their work evaluated.

Open to all ELEC members, there are currently six of these commissions covering various areas of economic activity and cooperation in Europe: Agriculture & Society, Economic and Social, Infrastructures, Mediterranean, Monetary, and Relations with EU neighbour countries. It is in the commissions that ELEC's essential research is carried out, as well as the drafting of position papers that give rise to various publications. They frequently call in external experts to present the issues which they examine. Finally, a "Europe & Strategy" working group informs and advises the President and the Central Council on the issues to be examined and the directions to take.

* may be ordered from ELEC