ENGS holds every third year an election of the board at the General Assembly. Usually ENGS holds a General assembly every year. Our General Assembly and most of the board meetings take place during the EGP meetings. We attend the EGP arrangements and put forward our view on the actual topics if they have got aspects affecting elderly. Examples are proposals of a third pillar in EU and the 2018 election manifesto. We attend the amendment and voting sessions and express our positions but we cannot vote. We try to get sympathy for our standpoints among the elected EGP members from our own countries. At all meetings we have had information stalls where people from the board are present and answer the questions of other people.
During the period 2016-19 the following meetings have taken place.
- 20 May 2016 board meeting and General assembly, election meeting, Utrecht
- 2-3 Dec 2016 two board meetings, Glasgow
- 1 April 2017 board meeting, Liverpool
- 29-29 July 2017 board meeting, Hamburg
- 24 Nov 2017 board meeting and General assembly, Karlstad
- 19 May 2018 board meeting Antwerp
- 23-25 Nov 2018 board meeting and General assembly Berlin
- 3 Oct 2019 board meeting Wien
- 8-10 Nov board meeting and General assembly election meeting Tampere
General assembly, election meeting, Utrecht
The board was elected as follows:
- Annette Muggenthaler, Germany, chair
- Vivianne Gunnarsson, Sweden vice-chair
- Franc Hauser, Germany, secretary general
- Tony Cooreman, Belgium, treasurer
- Birgit Meinhard-Schiebel, Austria, press officer
- Reino Lampinen, Finland, legal officer
The meeting followed the agenda for the general assembly and a proposal about change of the statutes.
Board meeting Utrecht
The meeting was constitutional and planning next period.
Fringe meeting Utrecht
The meeting was an open round table. Due to the recent attacks in Paris, Ankara and Brussels the round table discussed democracy and a peaceful society ending in a written statement about: We the older generation are also responsible for how future generations can live together in solidarity.
Board meeting Glasgow
ENGS had two board meetings. The first was held to follow activities in different countries and formalities about budget and changed statutes. The second was to plan activities to get more members and more countries interested in the activities of ENGS. It was decided to produce a folder about the organisation. This was realised 2017.
Fringe meeting in Glasgow
The topic of our seminary was the gender pension gap. The pictures from the seminary and a short report were put together and published in facebook.
Board Meeting in Liverpool
The meeting took up formalities and discussed the French proposal: Strengthen the pillar of Social Rights – an age perspective. ENGS commented the proposal in the EGP voting session.
Fringe meeting in Liverpool
The meeting was a discussion on strengthening the situation for elderly in Europe, together with the Green Seniors of England and Wales and with attendance also from Australia and different European countries.
Board meeting Hamburg
An extra meeting was held to sort out the future after the chairwoman had left ENGS.
It was decided to share the work between the Board members. The vice-chair would take on the responsibility as chair until next General assembly which should be hold in Karlstad. A by-election would be arranged at that meeting. The board was invited to a meeting with Hamburg seniors by their chair Christa Möller.
General assembly Karlstad
The General assembly was held and ENGS had made efforts to find persons for the vacancies at the Board but no-one volunteered. Hence it was decided that the vice-chair ought continuously take on the responsibility.
Board meeting Karlstad
It was decided that Vivianne Gunnarsson should be temporarily chair until next autumn and Kris Fierens should be a co-treasurer (under Tony Cooreman’s illness). It was also decided to invite Christa Muller to the board meetings (hopefully to take a seat at the board in the future). The plan for next fringe meeting was to combine seniors’ voluntary work and the labour market for elderly. The resolution in Liverpool from the French group on strengthening the pillar of Social Rights was not carried but the EGP council decided on a proposal by Ska Keller to set up an activity group to elaborate the resolution. ENGS will ask for a place there.
Fringe meeting Karlstad
The title of the fringe meeting was “No discrimination on the job market”. ENGS made an introduction to the topic followed by a lecture by the Swedish Parliamentarian, Stefan Nilsson.
The conclusion is that there exists age discrimination all over Europe and that people fall out from the job market earlier than ever.
Board meeting Antwerpen
We went through internal questions such as budget, contact list and e-mail addresses. The Flemish greens had put forward a resolution on the 3-pillar issue that ENGS had made amendments on. Two of these were taken by EGP.
Parts of the board visited our founder Tony Cooreman who was in hospital since a long time.
During the summer he died and left us in bereavement. Shed peace over his memory.
Fringe meeting Antwerpen
ENGS held a seminary on the issue “Loosing elections by losing the elderly voters” beginning with an introduction by Secretary General Frank Hauser.
ENGS sent 3rd July 2018 a note on the Antwerp fringe meeting results, based on Frank’s presentation, to Monica Frassoni, Reinhardt Bütikofer and Mar Garcia/EGP to use in the manifesto. In this note we pointed out topics of importance for the elderly in EU:
– old age poverty,
– accommodation and neighbourhood,
– mobility,
– discrimination of the elderly (as early as from 45 – 50 years) in the job market,
– passing on of experience – life-long learning,
– voluntary work,
– access to health care – at home, nursing home or hospital?
– assistance to elderly migrants,
– generation policy empowered by both young and old.
Mar Garcia answered 11 July: ”Thank you very much for your concise report! We will bring it to the Committee meeting that is happening this weekend with the aim to take it into account in a build-up of the Manifesto.
General Assembly Berlin
The general meeting went through the formal issues and there was a discussion about the chair since Vivianne Gunnarsson had taken on the responsibility until the autumn 2018. No new names had been visible for the post. Hence Vivianne promised to sit until someone else comes forward, hopefully next general meeting.
ENGS had arranged a table with a book and photo of Tony Cooreman for people to give condolence.
Board meeting Berlin
Besides formalities we discussed the preparation of amendments or other input to the ongoing EGP-meeting i.e. from the EGP Activity plan. We discussed preparations for the elections of a new board next spring (unfortunately the meeting in spring 2019 was cancelled due to the EU elections). Another issue was the upcoming EU election and our efforts to increase the membership.
Fringe meeting Berlin
More elderly to vote in the EU elections, round table discussion.
Forthcoming meeting:
Board meeting in Vienna
Extra board meeting to make plans for Tampere and future of ENGS.
General assembly in Tampere with election of the board for next 3 years
Election of a new board.
Board meeting Tampere
New members of the board plan the future of ENGS.
Fringe Meeting Tampere
New Finnish Government programme – policy for the elderly, seminary with invited guests and invited seniors from Tampere.
