In my view, this was the most decisive moment
in the genesis of EYE. At that time, I was president of the Young Flemish
Engineers’ movement K VIV-Jongeren. Earlier in that famous year 1994, the Dutch
young engineers of KIVI (Alex van der Veen, Roel Coppoolse) had come to Antwerp
to convince us of starting a European Young Engineers’ movement. It didn’t take
them long and soon we started editing a ‘Declaration of Intent’, together with
Philippe Stas, Luc Bongaerts and with Jan De Strooper, the young VIK president.
We discovered the Dutch had a national reality, whereas we
Belgians lived in a regional country, where several organisations may co-exist
in different regions. This difference between Belgium and the Netherlands proved
to be fruitful in the long term. It required some diplomacy to develop a first
declaration which would be suited for all European countries, and which would
later become the basis of EYE.
When the Declaration of Intent was signed,
I referred in my speech to the symbolic nature of the town of Ghent, be it with
some black humour. We had signed our treaty near the place where in 1576, the Pacification
of Ghent had been signed between the states of Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland and
a number of states in today’s Belgium. Only six months later, on June 16th,
1995, the first general EYE meeting took place. England, Finland, Germany and
Ireland were among the first nations to join us.
Therefore, as this is also Beethoven’s
birthday, let us play his Ode to Joy,
the European Hymn!
I refer to EYE, the
origins and to my blogs: “European
Young Engineers” and “The
Dream of the Silent” (Dutch).
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