The International Council

ESU - International Council

The International Council meets annually, usually alternating between the U.K. and an overseas location.

The 2010 I.C. Meeting will be in Tirana, Albania on Thursday, 21st October.

Recent meetings were:
London 2009
Edinburgh 2008 (in conjunction with the World members' Conference)
Tokyo 2007
London 2006

The Chairmanship rotates between the U.K. and the United States every three years. The current Chairman is Lord Hunt of Wirral and the Deputy Chairman is Mrs. Patricia Schroeder who succeded Mr. William Miller in 2009. Lord Watson of Richmond is Chairman-Emeritus

The Presidency is for a one-year term and a new President is elected from among the members present at the Council meeting, other than those from the U.K. and United States. Prof. Arne Zettersten of Denmark was elected at the 2009 meeting, succeeding Ambassador Hanabusa of Japan.

2009

The 2009 meeting was held at Dartmouth House on the 12th and 13th October, attended by 47 delegates from 31 countries.

In addition to the election of Prof. Zettersten, Mr. Miller was elected as a second Chairman-Emeritus. Other important items of business included presentations by ESU Bangladesh, ESU Malta and ESU Turkey to support their applications for membership. These were all accepted unanimously and the official launches will be held in 2010, Bangladesh in January and Malta and Turkey in successive weeks at the end of May and beginning of June. Several countries expressed interest in hosting future Council meetings or a WMC in 2012. A new topic discussed was the possibility of regional meetings. On the assumption that the centennial meeting will be held in London in 2018 there may be a place for Regional Conferences in 2015. This will be given further consideration.

Two half days were spent on Country Reports. The written reports were distributed on CD and each country had the opportunity to talk about programs, successes and difficulties as well as to ask questions of each other.

There were two social events, a formal dinner at the Cabinet War Rooms/Churchill Museum and an informal closing dinner at Dartmouth House.