The first Spouses Associations Conference of Foreign Ministries of the European Community was convened by the ACDMAE in Rome in 1985. It was witnessed the need of a closer connection between the European Associations, therefore it was decided to meet once a year.
The Conference first took the name ECFASA, then of EUFASA: “European Union Foreign Affairs Spouses Association”. EUFASA then became, through annual meetings and an interactive website, a forum of discussion concerning every subject related to the life of partners and families that follow FM employees in their wanderer lives.
EUFASA’s aim is to bring out from the discussion the best solutions to the main life difficulties of the “Foreign Affairs” families, at home and abroad, and to propose them to the local Administrations and to the attention of the European Commission.
The activities of EUFASA are:
- the annual Conferences, traditionally held in the country holding the European Presidency in the first half of the year, involving two delegates from each European Association, plus observers from Associations outside the EU;
- meetings with the representatives of the spouses present in the European Embassies, periodically convened by each Association in their capital city;
- the presentation of a report to the Committee for Administrative and Protocol Affairs of the European Commission on a topic chosen during the Conference;
- the debates on an internal website where every information is gathered and is possible to take part in team works.
EUFASA members are the Foreign Affairs Spouses Associations in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, European Commission, Estonia, Finland, France, Luxemburg, Netherland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Hungary and the priviliged observers are Foreign Affairs Spouses Associations in Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.