ANNUAL REPORT 2013

European Association of Geographers

Professionalising EUROGEO . . . 2Linking Tradition And Future . . . 3EJG In SCOPUS . . . 4Geography : Our World! . . . 4What Value Contemporary Geography? . . . 5At The Forefront In Europe . . . 6Financial Report . . . 8Professional Development . . . 9Connecting Beyond Europe . . . 10Council of Europe . . . 11EyeonEarth Initiative . . . 11EUROGEO On INSPIRE . . . 12World Forum For Democracy . . . 12Young European Geographers . . . 13

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This has been a very signifi cant year in the development of EUROGEO. The scale and impact of our activities has dramatically increased, enabled in part by the European Commission award in 2013 of the prestigious Jean Monnet Operating Grant for European associations. The award allowed EUROGEO to further raise its profi le in Europe and beyond. There were many highlights during 2013; this review can however only focus and refl ect on a few of them.

Professionalisation and public relations have been key words for 2013. These were identifi ed by the Presidium as issues that should be urgently addressed through our business plan for 2013-2016. The need to modernise the way the association operates and the public face of EUROGEO were central items in our application to the European Commission for the Jean Monnet grant submitted in November 2012. We were notifi ed of our success and fi nally received the grant half-way through the year. By this time the Presidium were already in the middle of a major renewal campaign, of our logo, the association Web site and our e-newsletter. A considerable undertaking that will be completed in 2014.

The rapid expansion and recognition of our fl agship journal, the European Journal of Geography, is particularly noteworthy. Its inclusion in SCOPUS, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, after only three years of operation, is an amazing achievement. This will further raise the profi le of the association and its journal, as well as increase its quality and submission rates. It will also have an impact on the workload of those involved.

EUROGEO is placed at the nexus of innovation, situated between policy and practise; governance and society; as a voicefor geography at European level and, where necessary, nationally and internationally. At events like the Council of Ministers of Education meeting in Helsinki, the World Forum for Democracy, the Council of Europe and the conferences which were part of the Lithuanian presidency in Vilnius, EUROGEO has participated in debate and infl uenced policy discussion at pan-European level. In 2013, EUROGEO also helped in the foundation of three new important European civil society organisations: the European Citizen Science Association, EU-MED and the Observatory for Smart City Learning These all deal with important geographical issues for Europe and they are closely related to our vision for geography at the heart of innovation and change.

In 2013 EUROGEO was proud to collaborate in the launch and development of the Turkish Association of Geographers and to support Canadian geographers seeking to build capacity for their geographical education in the future. We remain active, connecting with a range of other national

and international geographical societies and geographers by attending meetings and conferences, campaigning for geography and raising the status of geographical education.

EUROGEO performs a multitude of support roles. The association provides professional guidance, training and development for young professionals and offers a focus for research-active academics. Our initiative in 2013 to support the training of postgraduates and young researchers was important; this is a development we would like to continue in the future. The association also brings together professionals to examine complex issues, which relate to key European concerns like climate change, migration, borders and the environment. Promoting the geographical perspective through our publications in these and other areas is vital. EUROGEO is also deeply involved with open education, open data and open research, lifelong learning and training teachers. In addition we are an organisation responding to the needs of Europe by connecting geography to ICT initiatives like the Digital Agenda for Europe, ‘New Skills, New Jobs’ and INSPIRE Directive.

Ongoing activities continue to promote and develop active citizenship through geography and geographical education. Innovative work in EU projects like SPACIT (Spatial Citizenship) and digital-earth.eu as well as in initiatives like ‘Geo for All’ facilitate and enhance the work of the association. These activities are at the heart of where geography and geographers need to be situated. They are vital in keeping EUROGEO alive and encourage further development. We will need to maintain and augment our level of project activity in the future.

EUROGEO will only be as strong and active as the members who volunteer to help us in our work; in meeting our goals; and by contributing to the improvement of the status of geography in society. As the association expands, it needs to increase the numbers of supporters who help EUROGEO professionally and practically. The future of the European Association of Geographers is very exciting. We invite you to discuss with one of the Presidium members how you might become further involved in the work of the association.

I express my deepest thanks to all the elected and co-opted Presidium members for their active commitment to the work of EUROGEO.

Karl Donert | President EUROGEO

PRESIDENT’S REVIEW 2013

Professionalising In An Era of Innovation And Change

innovation and change

European Association of Geographers | Annual Report 2013 3

thinking about

geography

Geography: Linking Tradition And Future, Bruges, Belgium

The 2013 annual EUROGEO conference took place between 9-11 May in Bruges Belgium, with the participation and collaboration of the Department of Geography, Ghent University. The venue was Sint-Lodewijkscollege where the new wing consisting of a brand new auditorium and meeting place was inaugurated by the event. The central theme was ‘Geography: linking tradition and future’. The title refers to the role of geography in society, yesterday, today and tomorrow. The event encouraged participants to think about geography and international issues ranging from physical, urban and rural environments, and their evolution, to climate, pollution, development and political-economy.

Key issues in the different presentations focused on how these features are interconnected, forming patterns and processes impacting on present and future generations. The three keynotes – by Philppe De Maeyer (University of Gent), Sirpa Tani (Helsinki University) and Murat Karabulut (Kahramanmaras�Sütçü�Imam Üniversitesi) - investigated this by looking at maps, education and environment. The conference included about 100 presentations and also for the fi rst time a poster session was organised, with 15 posters on various themes. Participants represented a real cross-section of geographers, academics, lecturers, high school teachers, NGOs, companies, PhD candidates as well as students.Linked to the event a number of other activities took place, a European training course on GIS using iGuess training materials and a group of teachers took part in a Geocapabilities workshop, organised by the American Association of Geographers. The choice of Bruges added an extra dimension to our conference. On the fi rst evening the city of Bruges offered a reception to all participants in the magnifi cent medieval town hall, many participants took the opportunity to attend the world heritage Holy Blood Procession.

Luc ZwartjesVice President | Treasurer

The 2014 EUROGEO Conference „The Power of Geogra-

phy and the Role of Spatial Information“ will be held at

the University of Malta from 15 -17 May 2014.

iGuess training coursesbourg on GIS

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The publication of the European Journal of Geography (EJG) serves the main goal of the European Association of Geographers, to make European Geography a worldwide reference and standard. Towards that goal the EJG in the last four years has produced more issues with better quality papers in all geographic subjects, from authors located in practically every country of Europe and around the world. The following have been published since its inception: 2010: 1 issue, 5 articles; 2011: 2 issues, 11 articles; 2012: 3 issues, 18 articles; 2013: 4 issues, 22 articles.Within a very short time EJG has not only became a fully operational online journal, but with the necessary quality, the needed integrity and the required adhesion to the values of our discipline. At the end of 2013, EJG was accepted into SCOPUS, the world’s largest citation catalogue and it was of no surprise and a source of pride to all of us that the SCOPUS review team in evaluating EJG commented “A fi ne journal with excellent and widely cited papers on European Geography”.EJG policy is that all papers are evaluated in terms of their scientifi c merit and not on the subject they examine or the ideas they express. A major contribution of EJG is that the articles unquestionably show that what counts in geographic research is the unity in its values and not the uniformity of culture, approach or standards. Through their scientifi c efforts, geographers publishing in EJG advance the

universally accepted notion that Geography is indeed the best way to study the world we live in. Moreover, most of them by examining our world using a European perspective demonstrate diversity and difference, which represent the strength of our science and thus enhance and enrich our discipline, one of the goals of EUROGEO.The future of our journal is extremely promising as shown by the substantial increase in all the numbers, the statistics and the indices related to the issues, the articles and the web usage of EJG. It should be noted, however, that the challenges now are even greater for keeping up with high standards is harder than trying to reach them. Finally in terms of the editorial vision for EJG, I strongly believe that our journal should unwaveringly support the European aspect, the publication of an open access journal and the task of strengthening Geography. That is, the publication of EJG should operate as an instrument for a successful Europeanisation, with full open access to research and a desired enhancement of our science, the three basic concepts that represent the heart and soul of our journal.Article submission and the call for papers can be found at: http://www.eurogeographyjournal.eu Professor Kostis Koutsopoulos

Professor Kostis Koutsopoulos Vice President, Editor-in Chief

4 issues and 22 articles in 2013

European Journal Of Geography Accepted Into SCOPUS

“Geography : Our World!“In 2013, thanks to the Jean Monnet grant, selections of EJG papers were published as two books to highlight the contribution of geography to European research in dealing with Spatial Technologies and Geographical Issues and Border Perspectives in Europe. Each book of the series presents a collection of papers on topics that refl ect the signifi cance of Geography as a discipline. The overall aim is to deliver thought-provoking contributions that explore the complex interactions among geography, technology, politics and the human conditions. In addition the volumes will be brief, clear and to the point, while at the same time tackling urgent topics to geographers and politicians alike.Last but not least the publications were targeted to infl uence European policy makers of the role and value that geographers can offer to decision making in Europe.

Professor Daniela Schmeinck | Vice PresidentProfessor Kostis Koutsopoulos | Vice President

European Association of Geographers | Annual Report 2013 5

At the end of 2012 the Ministry of Education of Flanders planned to replace part of the geography course for 3rd stage TSO / KSO (students of age 17-18 in technical education) with ‘natural science’. The response of the geographical community was immediate, with an online petition (http://www.change.org/petitions/ministry-of-education-fl anders-oppose-the-plans-to-phase-out-geography), which was made available to defend geography from being extinct from the secondary education curriculum. All those who signed the petition also had the chance to comment on the reasons for the importance of Geography. More than 2500 Belgians and almost 750 people from other countries signed the petition. As a participating association EUROGEO recognised the importance of understanding why the geographical community thinks that our science actually matters. The results and comments of those who signed the petition provided an opportunity to summarise the reasoning behind the defence of Geography. Therefore all reasoned responses were extracted from the petition in order to better understand why participants thought geography was justifi ed within the secondary school curriculum. Tools from the domain of human language technology (HLT) provided by the Text Analysis Portal for Research (http://www.tapor.ca/) were used in order to summarize and consequently visualize the content of the responses.

SOME LESSONS FOR GEOGRAPHYThe petition received responses from 53 different countries. Most feedback outside Belgium naturally came from EU countries and the USA. The main group of comments contained the general assumption that “Geography helps us to better understand the world”. Surprisingly very little attention was given to the excellent opportunities for geographers resulting from advances in geospatial technology, sustainability and environmental protection or employment, despite EU initiatives in these areas. Terms such as ‘innovation’, ‘employment’, ‘entrepeneurship’, ‘opportunity’, ‘geospatial’, ‘GIS’ hardly appeared in processing the information.These fi ndings lead us to the conclusion that geographers, at least in Europe, still need to do a better job in promoting themselves. Geographical knowledge and skills are essential in many fi elds, so in order to better defend our subject we should improve our communication of the employability opportunities it offers. The fl ourishing geospatial sector, planning, business management and working in the environment are places where geographers fi nd employment. To succeed it is important for us to generate, for graduates, a sense of belonging to a community. International organizations such as the European Association of Geographers are critically important for promoting geography to the ‘outside world’. Alexander Kotsev | Vice PresidentLuc Zwartjes | TreasurerKarl Donert | President

lessons for

geography

What Value ContemporaryGeography?

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At The Forefront In Europe

roadmap for geography

Agreement and Launch: Rome Declaration on Geographical Education

In 2013 EUROGEO participated in the launch of several new pan-European organisations, EU-MED bringing entities working on Mediterranean research, the European Citizen Science Association (ESCA), the International Observatory on Smart `City Learning and EUlist an Erasmus+ network for training organisations. The association also contributed to a declaration on the future of geographic education and helped launch the new Turkish association and was involved in conferences of Social Sciences and Humanities research organisations and the Digital Agenda.EUROGEO is a founder member of ECSA, a major new initiative launched to develop an EU-wide association for Citizen Science. The European Environment Commissioner Janez Potonik welcomed the creation of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) at an event at EU Green Week on 6 June. ECSA aims to involve all European Union member states and engage fi ve million people across the EU over the next four years. The fi rst meeting of EU-MED members took place in October 2013 in Limassol, Cyprus. The aim was to establish a network to facilitate research and project funding at both national and international levels. Almost 130 organizations were registered members of EU-MED from 30 different countries. Participants the Limassol meeting agreed to act as a steering committee to start the establishment and consolidation of the Consortium. In 2013 EUROGEO became a member of the International Observatory for Smart City Learning (http://www.mifav.uniroma2.it/inevent/events/sclo/index.php?s=166) and Karl Donert was elected to represent EUROGEO on the Board. The

Observatory seeks to connect those working in the fi eld and to identify and report on report on local best practices and relevant resources in this fi eld. EUROGEO became a founder member of the EUlist consortium of Erasmus+ course providers. These organisations have long-standing experience of developing successful EU in-service training courses. The general profi le of their course programmes can be defi ned by certain quality criteria (http://in-service-training.eu/). In principle these courses are the outcome of a general, centralised European development project.The Changing geographies and geographies of change Conference was held by EUGEO with the Italian Association of Geography (5-7 September 2013) and hosted at the University of Rome La Sapienza and Società Geografi ca Italiana (Villa Celimontana). The event gathered more than 500 geographers from all over Europe and beyond. EUROGEO and its presidium members supported and participated in the Congress.At the conference, collaboration between the Presidents of AIIG (Italian Geography teacher Association), EUGEO, EUROGEO and the IGU led to the agreement and launch of the Rome Declaration on Geographical Education in Europe. The societies acknowledged the important role of geography in education and establish an action plan to promote the subject in Europe by offering guidance and support to education decision makers (http://tinyurl.com/eurogeorome2013). This Declaration would be followed up by the association Presidents in 2014, with aim of developing a Geographical Roadmap for Europe.

European Association of Geographers | Annual Report 2013 7

visionsof thefuture

In June EUROGEO members participated in the First Annual Congress of the Turkish Association of Geographers at Fatih University in Istanbul. The meeting was the largest geography meeting ever held in Turkey with over 350 people registered, more than 200 presentations in 50+ sessions, two panels, and specialty group meetings. Two panels were organized: ‘Editors panel’ hosted 6 editors of geography journals in Turkey and ‘Social Theory and Geography’ panel hosted experts from different universities and disciplines. Although there was no international call for participation, more than 30 international geographers attended the event. The three invited speakers were Prof. �lhan Tekeli from Middle East Technical University spoke about the need for historical geography with an idiographic character for regional planning. The President of European Association of Geographers, Karl Donert spoke on networking and the roles played by associations and Prof. Dr. Jean-François Perouse, Director of the French Anatolian Research Institute in Istanbul looked at the geographical problems of the city of Istanbul. The president of the Turkish Association of Geographers, Prof. Dr. Yilmaz Ari delivered the fi rst presidential address and stressed the current problems of Turkish geography and expressed his opinions as to how to deal with them. The next meeting of the Turkish Association of Geographers will be in Mugla, 4-7 June 2014, with international participation.In July, EUROGEO Presidium members connected with Scandinavian Geographers at their conference in Reykjavik, Iceland. In September the association participated in the “Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities“ conference in Vilnius, Lithuania. The aim was to bringing together representatives of the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) from all around Europe to improve the ways in which Human and Social Sciences may impact the new European research framework programme, Horizon 2020, the largest multi-annual research framework programme in the history of the European Union. At the meeting, the European Commission sought to solve several policy issues: e.g. politically, to foster a more innovative Europe, which is clearly seen as a way out of the current crisis; administratively, to tackle previous criticism about the conduct of research projects by introducing

measures of “simplifi cation”; strategically, to achieve better results to the challenges that Europe is facing by giving direction and thus by infl uencing the way research is organised. The sessions offered a unique opportunity to engage with policy-makers and administrators in productive discussion, and that this exercise was vital for the understanding the roles of SSH in the European Research Area in the long run. At the end of the conference, the Vilnius Declaration, the result of a long deliberate exchange of ideas, was presented to the audience and the commission. This was a major step towards the consolidation of European SSH as a cluster of research fi elds, which in all their diversity and drawing on different approaches, generate knowledge and policy responses that are highly relevant for the future of European society.In November the Digital Agenda for Europe launched the Horizon 2020 ICT programme at a large networking event of European researchers in Vilnius, Lithuania. This conference was attended by more than 5000 researchers, where EUROGEO presented the Digital Earth theme under the topic of “Big Data” and the association was invited to participate in Forum and networking sessions.EUROGEO also participated in the Jean Monnet conference in Brussels on European integration, towards a political union. The keynote by EU President Barroso refl ected how amazing it was that a European Union could develop after World War Two with an unrivalled model of governance, inspiring others. He indicated how politics matters in making good judgements as all leaders need a global vision, an understanding of implications and connections. The event confi rmed that Europe is about living together with visions to share the future. EUROGEO among the other Jean Monnet grant holders was invited to contribute actively in representing our visions of the future of Europe.

Yilmaz Ari | Vice PresidentKarl Donert | PresidentGerry O‘Reilley | Vice PresidentDaniela Schmeinck | Vice PresidentLuc Zwartjes | Vice President, Treasurer

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The association radically increased its activity in 2013. It is now involved as partners in 6 projects supported by the European Commission and for the fi rst time the association applied for and received a Jean Monnet grant for European associations. This gave EUROGEO the opportunity to extend its activities and to professionalize its organisation. One of the obligations of the grant was to spend it undertaking de-velopment activities. This included re-branding of the associ-ation and more emphasis on promotion. A full fi nancial audit is also a consequence of this activity.The EUROGEO budget grew signifi cantly in 2013, with in-come of €208.539,24. The main income came from EC

grants, but also the annual conference and courses organi-sed by the association. In terms of expenses, the main costs were the conference and all workshops that were organised, but also staffi ng to administer and support the offi cers of the association. This resulted in an increase in the net as-sets of EUROGEO. At the end of 2013, based on reporting of activities, €20,000 of the Jean Monnet grant was still to be received from the European Commission.

Luc Zwartjes | Treasurer

Financial Report 2013

Sint-Blasiusstraat 38020 Waardamme BelgiumONDERNEMINGSNUMMER 0817.975.363

EXPEDITURE AMOUNT INCOME AMOUNTServices and diverse goods 190.240,37 € Membership 2.267,15 €Financial costs 215,19 € Grant 80.940,74 €Other 9,60 € Congresses and courses 67.895,12 €

Refund congresses and courses - 235,00 €Project work 37.632,24 €Financial profi ts (Bank) 38,99 €

Total expediture 190.465,16 € Total income 188.539,24 € Balance 2013 -1925,92 €

balance 31/12/2012 13,599,77 € balance current year -1925,92 €balance 31.12.2013 11,674,01 €grant due from the European Commission 20,000,00 €

opportunity to extend

European Association of Geographers | Annual Report 2013 9

During 2013, EUROGEO offered and contributed to a range of professional training courses for different individuals, groups and organisations. GIS training was undertaken in Belgium and Sweden, new technologies in Poland, fi eldwork activity in Iceland and PhD training in Bulgaria.EUROGEO organized two one-day teacher training courses on the use of Web GIS in Sweden. The sessions were led by Luc Zwartjes, at Karlstad University and Uppsala University. Both sessions were fully booked with 25 teachers attending. None of them had any real GIS-experience. After working through introductory activities they were challenged to develop and present their own exercises and/or ideas for exercises. There was also time for dealing with practical information related to school and class environments. The association aims to continue these activities.In May EUROGEO organised the fourth iGuess training course, “Integrating the use of GIS in education in several subjects”, attended by more than 30 teachers, educators and NGO and SME representatives. The course provided an introduction to GIS and sessions with ready-made exercises. The participants then created their own material and activities. The training was lead by Wim Daems from KoGeKa (Belgium), Aikaterina Klonari of the University of the Aegean and Luc Zwartjes & Karl Donert of EUROGEO.

In Warsaw, Poland EUROGEO contributed to the fi rst Eduinkubator event, hosted by members UNEP-GRID Warsaw. The focus was on the rapid development of ICT, and at the same time the systematic contraction of the spaces in which we live. EduInkubator 2013 was an educational event aimed at promoting universal use in nature education of modern educational tools. More than 600 participants examined European trends in the implementation of the technological innovation for nature education and discussed how to support the development of key competences of current and future teachers of the digital era.Together with the European Young Geographers, EUROGEO organised its fi rst postgraduate skills seminar. The event took place in Sofi a and was hosted at the St Kliment Ohridski University on the 100th anniversary of the Geography Department. The event was attended by 15 doctoral candidates, it sought to examine issues associated with the presentation and publication of the results of doctoral research, examining networking and promoting research, writing for publication and using ArcGIS Online for publishing research data.

Luc Zwartjes | Treasurer Karl Donert | President

professionaltraining courses

Professional Development for Geographers

You can follow EUROGEO activities and keep up to date with the latest geographical news via social media and the Web.

Follow us

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/EUROGEO-2267015

Facebook: h t t p : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m /groups/194359357259031/

Twitter: @karldonert

http://www.eurogeography.eu

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Members of the EUROGEO Presidium represented the association at a number of international events around the world. These included the International Geographical Union (IGU) Regional Conference in Kyoto, Japan, the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) in Denver, USA and the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) annual meeting in St. Johns, Newfoundland.The 2013 IGU regional conference of the International Geographical Union 2013 (IGU 2013) took place under the motto “Traditional Wisdom and Modern Knowledge for the Earth’s Future”, the conference brought together a total of 1500 representatives from 87 countries. Board members were involved in the main conference and in the Geographic Olympiad. In his welcome address, Professor Vladimir Kolossov, President of the IGU stressed the importance of Geography in Culture and Education. The multifaceted conference program was rounded up by two one-day excursions, organized by Japanese colleagues. The fi rst excursion took the participants to Nara, capital city of Nara Prefecture and one of the main touristic attractions in Japan. The visit of the Todaiji („Great Eastern Temple“), the Buddhist Temple in which visitors can see Japan‘s largest bronze statues of Buddha (Daibutsu) as well as the visit of the famous Shinto and a walk to Nara-Park.EUROGEO was present at the 2013 NCGE conference. More

than 500 participants attended the event, which marked the 98th annual meeting of the association, with the theme ‘Reaching New Heights’. The association is dedicated to expanding and improving geography education in US schools and contributing to the development of highly qualifi ed geography teachers. The President of the association was invited to attend and participate in the Canadian Association of Geographers meeting. The purpose was to lead a workshop to explore the needs of Canadian geographical education and develop a road map for the future.

Prof. Dr. Daniela Schmeinck | Vice PresidentKarl Donert | President

The next IGU Regional Conference will be held in Kraków,

Poland, 18-22 August, 2014, with the theme Changes,

Challenges, Responsibility (http://www.igu2014.org).

Connecting With Geographers Beyond Europe

European Association of Geographers | Annual Report 2013 11

EUROGEO: An NGO In The Council of Europe IIn 2013 EUROGEO was represented in a range of important meetings. In January and June the Conference of INGOs (In-ternational NGOs) meets during four days in which three committees continue to work on projects presented at the fi nal meeting during that week. EUROGEO is an accredited member of this conference and also occupies in the person of Secretary General the seat of Vice Chair of the Education and Culture Committee. One working group of this committee is involved in legislation and guidance for Internet Governance. The ultimate goal is to produce a paper to be submitted at

the June Conference in 2014. The Secretary General and Vice Chair Committee Education and Culture was invited to attend the ministerial conference on education of the Coun-cil of Europe in Helsinki. EUROGEO also participated in the World forum for Democracy, held at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. During this year membership administration was moved from the Secretary General’s offi ce to the EUROGEO offi ce in Cologne.

Harry Rogge | Secretary General

EyeonEarth: A Special Spatial InitiativeIn 2013 EUROGEO became a member of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) EyeonEarth stakeholder initiative, attending meetings in Abu Dhabi and Geneva. The aim of the initiative is to enable access to quality environmental data for sound decision making, build capacity to support sustainable development and share this spatial data globally through the UNEP Live portal (http://www.uneplive.org) the groups are looking to provide quick access to data, for instance in disaster mitigation and management and connecting with education. EyeonEarth engages voluntary stakeholder organisations to be agents of change.

There are three fundamental initiatives i) Access for All ii) Environmental Education and iii) building Global Network of Networks and fi ve thematic initiatives, a) Disaster Management, b) Water Security, c) Oceans and Blue Carbon, d) Community, Sustainability and Research and e) Biodiversity. If you want to get involved, email eoecommunity@ead.ae or visit http://www.eyeonearthsummit.org.

Karl Donert I President

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Since 2007 Geographers, united within the European As-sociation of Geographers (EUROGEO), have been actively working to support the emerging spatial data infrastructure as result of the implementation of the INSPIRE Framework Directive (2007/2/EC). The implementation of INSPIRE will lead to the establishment of the biggest regional spatial data infrastructure in the world, ultimately unlocking huge volumes of spatial information that can be used in support of the decision making processes which are relevant to one or more of the 34 INSPIRE data themes.In 2013 EUROGEO joined the “Geo for All” open data ini-tiative (http://opensourcegeospatial.icaci.org/) and provided our views on the implementation of INSPIRE to the Euro-pean Commission through the public consultation mecha-nism (http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm/newsid/11281), strongly supporting the establishment of INSPIRE for the following reasons:• Interoperability of dataacrossdomains and countries is

still a challenge in Europe, leading to issues primarily rela-ted to policy making and the well-being of citizens;

• Unlockingdatathroughthepan-Europeanspatialdatain-frastructure would doubtlessly empower citizens and lead to better policy making;

• More interoperable, open geospatial data is needed totackle challenges of today;

• Thescaleofspatialdatainfrastructureactivities,becauseof the complexity of the Europe is of unprecedented scale and provides a valuable example for the world.

Many thousands of geographers are working on INSPIRE-related issues across Europe, so EUROGEO emphasises the following:1. The skills and competences of geographers covers a broad

spectrum of topics related to INSPIRE, that no other expert group can offer;

2. The increased availability of data through INSPIRE would promote the societal role which geography plays;

3. The evolution of INSPIRE should focus more on awareness raising and education

To ensure we maximize the potential of INSPIRE, it will be essential to ensure high quality geographical education for all is implemented across Europe.

Alexander Kotsev I Vice President

EUROGEO on INSPIRE: EC Infra-structure For Spatial Information

Representing Geography At The World Forum For Democracy

Continuing EUROGEO’s active involvement in the activities of the Council of Europe, Karl Donert and Niels Grootjans atten-ded the World Forum for Democracy from 27-29 November 2013 in Strasbourg as invited experts in connection to the main theme „Re-wiring Democracy: connecting institutions and citizens in the digital age“. EUROGEO had a promo-tion stand in the main building and made contributions to

all sessions. EUROGEO raised awareness about participative mapping, environmental monitoring processes, digital huma-nitarian emergency management, crowdsourcing, community planning and spatial citizenship.

Niels Grootjens

European Association of Geographers | Annual Report 2013 13

agreement between

EGEA and EUROGEO

Working with young Geographers

Young geographers are vital for the future of the association. One of the goals of EUROGEO is to help them at the start of their careers. Therefore, EUROGEO is delighted that in 2013 we again attracted a number of new young members. Our main partner in keeping contact with young geographers is EGEA, the European Geography Association for students and young geographers. EGEA is a large network with almost 90 university entities in cities all over Europe. This year EGEA and EOROGEO met and collaborated on a number of occasions. Ten young geographers from EGEA joined the EUROGEO conference in Bruges and five of them presented in one of the sessions. EGEA organised a special program and package for students attending the event, which included accommodation and an additional field trip. As part of the conference in Bruges, EGEA and EUROGEO organised a special round table session about the future of geography in Europe.EUROGEO was invited to participate in the Annual EGEA Congress and to present the work and activities of the association to students. At this congress, a partnership agreement between EGEA and EUROGEO was signed underlining the importance of future cooperation and joint actions. At this congress EUROGEO representatives spoke with EGEA alumni and EUROGEO promoted their special

membership for recent graduates. In November, EUROGEO held a meeting with EGEA’s new president Colette Caruana to organise the 2014 conference in Malta. In 2013 EUROGEO started to consider organising a big reunion for geographers who were active in EGEA. This will be undertaken by the committee who organised the Annual Congress in 2004.

Gert Ruepert I Vice President

14

KARL DONERT President

KOSTIS KOUTSOPOULOS Vice President

ALEXANDER KOTSEV Vice President

HARRY ROGGE Secretary General

DANIELA SCHMEINCK Vice President

GERRY O’REILLY Vice President

Members of the EUROGEO Presidium 2013-2014

Editor: Karl Donert

Design:Daniela Schmeinck Ulrike Kersting

Print:www.hundt-druckde

Photos: EUROGEOwikipedia.orgFotoliaDaniela Schmeinck

IMPRINT

European Association of Geographers | Annual Report 2013 15

LUC ZWARTJES Vice President: Treasurer

GERT RUEPERT Vice President

YILMAZ ARI Vice President

EUROGEO is a registered NGO in Belgium. http://www.eurogeography.eu

Contact EUROGEO at: eurogeomail@yahoo.co.uk

www.eurogeography.eu

ANNUAL REPORT 2013 | EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHERS