ABOUT EUFASA
The purpose of
EUFASA is the exchange of information and ideas among its members to improve the
provisions relating to spouses, partners and families of officers employed by
the EU Foreign Ministries. It aims to identify effective family support
practices, and to raise awareness both at national and EU level and gain support
for family-friendly policies within the EU Ministries of Foreign Affairs.
Members
The current members of EUFASA are the spouses/partners’ associations of:
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, EU Commission, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Privileged Observers – Observers
The spouses/partners’ associations of Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are
privileged observers, sharing some membership rights. The EU Member States
without spouses/partners’ associations as well as the EU Accession and Candidate
states have observer status.
EUFASA’ concerns
Topics of interest to EUFASA include: (Links)
- spouse/partner employment
- pension provisions
- education, especially children
with special needs
- separation and divorce
- foreign born spouses
- security/safety
- voluntary work
- health/insurance
- legal status
These themes
recur in different forms, along with topics pertaining to the structure and
mechanisms of EUFASA itself, in the working groups and the Conference
presentations. Some topics merit EUFASA-wide surveys where information is often
elicited both from the associations and their Ministries.
How
EUFASA works
EUFASA’s delegates meet at an annual two-day Conference, and during
the year the preparatory work is done on a members’ website.
The website houses
a members’ notice board, information, a discussion forum and online working
groups where topics are prepared for the next Conference.
The Association
hosting the Conference is Chair of EUFASA from the 1st of July until the 30th of
June of the following year. The Chair is assisted by the previous and the next
Chair ( the “Troika”) and by other delegates forming the “Steering Committee”.
At the end of each EUFASA Conference a letter is usually drafted summarizing the
Conference and outlining any recommendations arising from the Conference, and
each association is requested to present it to its own Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
History
It was a Greek diplomat's wife who came up with the idea of a meeting amongst the different European Community MFAs' Spouses Associations.
The Italian Spouses Association (ACDMAE) organized in Rome in 1985, during the Italian Presidency of the EEC, a Symposium. Since then a Conference has been held every year in a different European capital.