Easter greetings - letter of the President

Lund, 9^th April 2022.

Dear Colleagues, Friends,

It’s with mixed feelings I write this Easter letter. I am full of joy and sadness at the same time. Four years as President is a long time and much has happened in the world which we could not anticipate. Nobody suspected in 2019 that wewould be affected by a pandemic preventing us from meeting in person for two years. Instead, we were forced to have Bureau and General Assembly meetings on internet.

Thanks to your cooperation it worked better than expected and I am grateful to all of you for that. To keep contact theRestricted Bureau has taken many initiatives in Skype meetings which normally would have been discussed in theBureau. But there was no other way.

Now we have a terrible war in our neighbourhood, and we do not know how it will end. Many people have become refugees and many more are suffering. In this alarmed time, it is important that we stand united for ourfundamental rights hoping that this tragic war soon ends.

Next time to meet in person will be June 16 to 18 in Helsinki, Finland. I call on you to come to that meeting.The program is very interesting and is on its way.

June is a beautiful month in the North. Remember the warm weather in Lund, 2019.

Note, and this is important! We will have an extraordinary General Assembly meeting to elect a new President and Vice President during that venue. So, your participation is necessary.

The seminar will be about Finlandization. A subject that has direct implication to the world of today. There will begood speakers with great experience on how to deal with Russia.

We must also decide about a new theme for a colloquy and a rapporteur. I have proposed two themes: Therule of law and Climate change. Lars Nilsson one of the speakers at the meeting in Lund is also a head writer of the last IPCC report, which is just released. But we need more ideas. You are most welcome to send new proposals of colloquy themes to the secretariat.

In the Fall of 2022, there will be a seminar meeting in Berlin, October 13 to 15. Save the dates in yourcalendar. More information will come.

This Easter letter is an opportunity to thank you all for good cooperation during these troublesome years. It has been a real pleasure to work with you and you have become my friends.

I am happy that Finland and Norway are full members, and I am hoping that Denmark will join as observerfor two years. They were positive at the annual meeting last March.

Special thanks to the members of the Restricted Bureau with JP Fourré, Jan-Kees Wiebenga, BirgitteLangenhagen and Dario Rivolta: Thank you very much for everything and the good Skype meetings.

Without the help of the secretariat, it would not have been possible to achieve so much during these years. Great thanks to Roland Roblain, Lisette Hermans and Krist Decannière. You have become my good friends.

I wish you all Happy Easter!

Rune Rydén

President