Annual report for the year 2020

European network of Green Seniors, ENGS is officially an international organisation under Belgian law and at the same time a network within EGP with financial support from EGP and some member organisations.

During 2020 ENGS has not had any physical Board meetings nor any General Assembly because of the Corona pandemic which has resulted in major lockdown and restrictions in Europe as well as in the whole world. To compensate for the non-realizable physical board meetings, we carried through five virtual Board meetings, 9/5, 8/6, 21/9, 10/11 and 7/12. The General Assembly, planned for December, had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

The Board was elected in Tampere November 2019 and consisted of:
Vivianne Gunnarsson, Sweden, Vice president
Jan Kris Fierens, Belgium, Treasurer
Frank Hauser, Germany, Secretary general
Reino Lampinen, Finland, Legal adviser
Christa Möller, Germany, Communication
Irmgard Seidler, Austria, Fellow
Agneta Granström, Sweden, Fellow

The post as President is still vacant.

In June EGP was supposed to have 31st Council meeting in Skopje. Due to the corona pandemic the meeting was carried out as a virtual meeting and ENGS could not attend it. However, ENGS sent a position paper for the EGP council, a Declaration on Corona and the aged, convention by Network of Green Seniors on Covid-19 virus and beyond. Four members of the Board presented the essentials from the Convention in a video which was repeatedly sent in the conference and is still on ENGS´s homepage. We also sent another paper to the EGP specifically directed to the situation of the elderly, “Ensure participation for the elderly in the corona pandemic and break through social isolation”.

In October ENGS sent a letter to EGP with motivation to become a proper side organisation with voting rights and a right to make amendments to EGP documents and proposals, “European network of green seniors, ENGS as a side organisation to EGP”. On the 18th of November we got the answer “Unfortunately we will not be able to support your proposal at this time, given the current capacities of ENGS”. Instead, we were offered a meeting for further conversation. This meeting took place in January 2021.

The 32nd EGP council took place in Warsaw 4-6 December. Only EGP elected and Greens from Poland could participate in person. The Council was closed from others and they, including ENGS, could only participate virtually on the 5th of December in a program with opening, panels and parallel meetings. ENGS had the banner and announcement to our homepage and facebook group in a virtual showroom. Vivianne Gunnarsson presented ENGS and our 15 years anniversary in a video which was open before and during the conference. It can now be found on ENGS homepage.

For the fringe meeting in Warsaw Christa Möller made a video presentation about “Agefriendly cities” and Frank Hauser moderated the event. It was much appreciated and about 50 persons visited the event. Christa Möller got an invitation by Miriam Kenneth from Green Economics Institute in Oxford to give a shortened version on their winter warming day. We followed up the names of the participants and found several listeners who could be interested in further elaboration with ENGS.

During the year we have updated the document History of ENGS and frequently discussed on modernising of our statutes. The new statutes will be decided on the next general meeting. The homepage and facebook group are under development by a consultant engaged by the ENGS. Internet communication become more and more important for contacts. In order to be visible, we encourage members to be active in these two media more frequently. As before, ENGS has no possibility to reach individual members or member organisations. We must go via the parties in each country and use the EGP secretariat´s assistance. This results in difficulties to reach interested persons and to act jointly. Therefore, as a means to get more personal contacts we have begun to invite persons as guests to our board meetings.

ENGS thanks the EGP administration for their service and kind cooperation before and during the meetings, especially the virtual ones.

For the board 25 January 2021
Jan Kris Fierens, Agneta Granström, Vivianne Gunnarsson
Frank Hauser, Reino Lampinen, Christa Möller,
Irmgard Seidler

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