The concept that European Philatelic Federations should get together to consider the formation of a Continental Federation arose as is often the case in such matters from a number of informal discussions between individuals with likeminded ideas. These culminated in the British Philatelic Federation contacting a number of other Federations to enquire whether they would be supportive of there being a discussion of the possibility of forming a European Federation during the HAFNIA International Exhibition held at Copenhagen in October 1987.
The response received was very positive and a meeting was arranged for Friday 23 October 1987. This was well attended (Denmark being excused) by representatives from Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia. Finland, France, Germany BRD, Germany DDR, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, FIP, FIAF and FIAP with Ronald Lee (UK) acting as Chairman.
The basis of the concept to provide a forum for closer philatelic co-operation throughout Europe was explained by Alan Huggins (UK) and Ladislaw Dvoracek, President of FIP indicated that he welcomed the idea of the formation of the proposed Federation. A lively discussion then developed of the draft text distributed and the Swedish Federation suggested that a Working Party should be formed, preferably representative of the different geographical areas of Europe. This proposal was accepted and the following were nominated to be members: Tomas Kocsis (Hungary), Salih Kuyas (Turkey), Ronald Lee (United Kingdom), Johan Olamo (Finland), and Francisco da Silveira (Portugal). With the addition of a member of the Austrian Federation to represent the German-speaking area and a representative from me Benelux countries to be nominated, the composition of the Working Party was confirmed and a meeting scheduled for 1 March in London.
