A European Network Takes Shape: The First Letters

In December 1987, EURO-TZA e.V. was officially registered and recognised as a charitable organisation. An idea that had arisen during my time at the European Parliament in Luxembourg had now become an organisation. But an organisation is only as alive as the people behind it. And the people came forward.

Nine Countries, Nine Names

Even during my time as a Robert Schuman Fellow, André from the Netherlands and I had been thinking about how we could advance jobsharing at European level. Who was already working on new forms of working-time arrangements? Who could be the contact person in each country? Together with other stagiaires (trainees) and a number of officials (civil servants) of the European Parliament, our first European network came into being. Representatives from nine countries declared their willingness to support the idea of European cooperation:

• Denmark – Pernille
• France – Nadine
• Greece – Theophile
• Great Britain – Joanne
• Ireland – Carol
• Italy – Marco
• Netherlands – André
• Spain – José-Maria
• West Germany – Marie-Therese

For me, this list was more than a list of names. It was a promise. Everyone behind it had signalled: I’m in. I believe in this. That carried weight – precisely because no one yet knew what it would all look like in practice.

A Letter from Cork, Ireland

That this idea would actually grow into cooperation became apparent only a few weeks later. At the end of December 1987 I received the first letter, from Carol in Cork, Ireland. Like me, she had been a stagiaire at the European Parliament, and we had got to know each other well in Luxembourg.

„Hi Marie-Therese … I am glad to hear that the European cooperation for promoting new forms of parttime job splitting, job sharing etc is taking off. It is a really marvelous concept and one which I think would be most applicable in Ireland where at present new ideas on employment have to evolve given the grave unemployment problem here which is about 17% of the population. I am enclosing a photo as you requested. I’m not quite sure what you mean by a short discription of my personality, I think you mean my qualifications which are as follows …“

Letter from Carol, Cork (Ireland), 30 December 1987 (original)

Carol’s letter moved me. She wrote in the middle of the Christmas period, and she even enclosed a photo. What impressed me most was her view of Ireland: 17 per cent unemployment. In a country carrying such a burden, Carol wrote, new ideas on employment could not wait. For her, jobsharing was not an academic concept. It was an answer to an urgent question.

A Letter from Athens, Greece

It was an unassuming envelope that lay in my letterbox one morning in January 1988 – postmarked Athens. I still remember exactly how I opened it: a handwritten letter from Theophile, who had heard about the founding of our association and wanted to know how the cooperation was to be organised. Whether one needed a separate association in each country. Whether there might be simpler ways.

That was the moment I realised that with the registration of EURO-TZA e.V. the real work had only just begun. The association had been officially founded, recognised as a charitable organisation, and the board was in place. But a European network does not come about through statutes – it comes about through people finding one another. I had met Theophile (visiteur, law) in Luxembourg at various events of the European Parliament – lively, curious, always ready for a discussion. And he had a particular way of getting to the point. More than once in Luxembourg he had said to me, with a smile in which seriousness and charm were indistinguishable: ‘A woman like you absolutely must speak French.’ I had laughed. And let the matter rest. Now, months later, he was writing to me from Athens. And remained true to himself.

„Hello dear Marie-Therese … I am pleased that you have already founded an association in Germany. Of course I am at your disposal for cooperation on job sharing. But you must inform me better how this cooperation will run etc … I have at the moment no passport photo, but will have one made immediately. What about your project for the founding of a federation? Must I always on my side found a Greek association or is it no longer necessary? It is not so easy for me to write in German. You must urgently learn French. I am waiting for your news …’“

Letter from Theophile, Athens (Greece), 4 January 1988 (translated from the German original)

That last sentence. I had to laugh when I read it. And I still laugh today whenever I pick up the letter. Theophile wrote as he spoke: direct, warm, without detours. What in Luxembourg had been personal encouragement – ‘A woman like you absolutely must speak French’ – had now, put on paper and sent from Athens to Oldenburg, become a friendly demand. He was of course right. But above all, this letter showed something that moves me to this day: here was someone writing as a friend. Someone to whom the project – and I personally – meant something.

These letters made me aware how great the challenge was – and how real the community already was. No internet, no emails. Every contact went through handwritten or typed letters. Photos were sent by post. Replies often took weeks to arrive. And yet – or perhaps precisely because of it – every letter carried weight.