New Years’ message from Pierre-Yves Le Borgn
Dear friends of Europeans Throughout The World,
We will soon be entering a new decade, the third of the 21st century. Time flies for all of us and also for our organization, Europeans Throughout The World. In 2019 we have celebrated our 35 years’ anniversary by preparing ETTW to look ahead at the next decade, trying to modernize and streamline the way we operate.
We have come such a long way since these first pioneering moments. In the early 1980s, the cause of mobility and free movement of people remained rather remote for most decision makers. Yet, for all Europeans living abroad, it was their day to day life. ETTW was set up to unite national diasporas and expat organizations with the view of enhancing their common goals at European level and reducing that gap. Step by step, ETTW managed to raise expatriate citizens’ issues with European institutions. Education, culture, citizenship, social rights, voting rights and representation are among them.
We are the voice of European diasporas in the European Union and beyond, proclaiming that living abroad should not be perceived as a loss but as an opportunity for oneself, for our respective countries and for Europe. More than ever, this remains our genuine conviction. That is why we treasure ETTW so much, helping it transition to the new digitalization age, making it more interactive, positioning it as a solution-oriented partner. In 2020, we will be focusing on the needs of individual expatriates and their associations on the concrete practical challenges of expatriation, notably on mutual recognition of diplomas and of vocational training periods, on the free movement of workers and pensioners and on electoral representation. We are adamant that people living abroad should be allowed to vote for national elections and to elect their own MPs. We will also reach out to new potential partner organizations in order to grow our network and weigh in decisively to support the definition of an ambitious pan-European diaspora policy. This is our roadmap for the months to come.
We wish you all a happy 2020 and a successful new decade.
Pierre Yves-Le Borgn’.
President