The Federation of EUropean fire officers (FEU) announces the appointment of its President, Stephan Wevers, for a second three-year term. This appointment took place in Zagreb/Croatia, during the 54th FEU Council meeting 9-10 November 2023.
Composed of many of the fire officer association or state fire service in Europe (including UK and Norway), FEU has at its head a President, assisted by a management board comprising four board members and a secretary. The FEU is an independent professional body whose members are senior professionals that have responsibility for strategic management of the Fire and Rescue Services and in the process of further professionalisation.
Stephan Wevers’ first term was marked by a series of serious global crises. The federation has been challenged by several catastrophic events: the global pandemic of Covid-19, the large-scale war in Ukraine and the ever-increasing forest fires. However, President Wevers notes proudly, "FEU has been able to learn from these world crises and to exchange knowledge and skills through joint action with its members”, which is one of the pillars of the FEU program, Exchange of Experts and Knowledge. He also managed to address global issues such as Sustainability, DEI and Energy Transition at special seminars and jointly issue a statement on these.
Under Wevers’ presidency the other two pillars of the FEU vision, Leadership and The Voice have been developed significantly as well. An Officer Development Program has been launched in spring 2022, followed up in June 2023 and the registration for the 2024 edition is about to come. To be a strong voice for fire and rescue services at European and global level, the FEU focusses to be the point of contact concerning organisational, managerial, and strategical issues of the fire and rescue service leadership in Europe for all parties.
Wevers stresses that his second term should be one of further grow of membership: “The development of the FEU will enable it to provide a good platform for new members. All of this will lead to a broad international network, enabling the FEU to spread its values to an ever-growing group: Sharing, Inspiring and Improving”.
------------------------
Stephan J.M. Wevers MCDm represents the Fire Service from the Netherlands; he is a cfo at Brandweer Twente in Enschede and past president of the Netherlands Fire Service.
For more information you can contact Secretary@f-e-u.org
