Frequently asked questions

The best way is by email to our secretariat – address: info@eucanaid.eu.

Alternatively, you can write to us at:
eu can aid! Association AISBL
c/o Council of the E.U., Bureau JL - 02 CG 39
175 rue de la Loi (Justus Lipsius)
1048 Brussels
Fax 02 281 83 78
Tel, with answerphone: 02 281 83 77

The Association's account number is:
ING – 310-0240.244-61
IBAN: BE62310024024461
BIC: BBRUBEBB

By all means: by making an appointment with one or other of us by sending an email to our secretariat. If you are working in one of the European Institutions, you can also make contact directly with one of the members of the Committee:

Dominique Levieil
Pascal Declaye
Bernadette Feyereisen.

We are always ready, all year round, to study any request for aid for a micro-project in the development context. The page entitled "How to submit a project" on our website will tell you how to go about it.

Initially, a working party called the "Projects Group", which is internal to the Association, examines all requests for aid to ensure that they are indeed related to development projects. It checks that the proposals laid before it comply with the terms of our intervention as defined in a document available on the page of our website entitled "How to submit a project". It also checks the references and experience of the group or NGO which is putting forward the project as well as the extent of the needs to be met by means, for instance, of the submission of estimates.

At a second stage, all persons promoting a project are asked to sign a "Letter of engagement" before any financing for the project in question can be given. In this document, the promoter undertakes to send eu can aid! a report on the progress of the project after one year, with documentary proof and photos in support.

At a third stage, these reports are analyzed to check whether the project has indeed been carried out satisfactorily. Needless to say, any further financing is dependent on a satisfactory conclusion of such analysis.

Lastly, eu can aid! is happy if any member of the Association or supporter, when travelling on his or her own account, is prepared to check out the situation "on the ground".

To become a member of eu can aid!, please consult the page entitled "Becoming a member" on our website.

Any natural person who shares the views and subscribes to the aims of the Association is welcome to join us, despite the fact that our communication and awareness-raising campaigns are above all destined for the staff of the European Institutions.

To become a member, you simply need to contribute to the Association's activities through making a regular payment. The amount you pay is at your discretion.

People who are subject to direct tax under Belgian law and whose contributions or gifts are in excess of € 40 per year can ask our secretariat to provide them with a statement for the tax authorities (info@eucanaid.eu). The Staff Regulations governing the income of officials and other staff of the European Institutions make no provision for such deduction.

Not only can you remain a member but we would actively encourage you to do so. We would also encourage you to join our teams of volunteers whenever your well-filled diaries so permit. In fact, a large number of our members and volunteers are retired.

When you come to retire, please do not forget to let us have your new address and above all your private email address so that we can keep in touch, especially if you leave Belgium. To those who can leave us only a postal address, we shall be able only to send our Annual Reports and calls to General Meetings.

We shall be very grateful to you if you would like to make a donation to the Association. Please send it to our account c/o ING – 310-0240.244-61, specifying that it is a "Donation", so that we can place on record that it is a one-off donation and not a first subscription after becoming a member.

All our meetings are open to anyone who would like to attend, either to become better informed or to become a volunteer.

As a first contact, we would suggest attending one of the "Project Group" meetings which take place each Tuesday from 13.00 to 14.00 in the AIACE room (2nd floor) in Building Science 29.

You are also free to attend the monthly meetings of our Committee's "Awareness-Raising Group" and of course attend our Annual General Meetings which normally take place in February or March. In the event that you would like to attend a General meeting, please send an email to info@eucanaid.eu beforehand, especially if you do not have a card giving you access to the building where the meeting is to take place.

Over a period of more than 40 years, eu can aid! has supported more than 1000 projects. The list of those assisted over recent years appears on the page entitled "Projects" on our website.

eu can aid! currently has roughly 600 members and at least as many occasional supporters, contributing from time to time. Its annual budget is in excess of € 200,000.

eu can aid! is an Association which is independent of any political, religious or institutional bias, having been set up as an international without-profit association (aisbl) under Belgian law. It is not a body of the European Institutions but has the fully private character of a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO).

eu can aid! operates on the basis of volunteer action. Most of its members belong to the staff or retired staff of the European Institutions. The list of members of the Governing Body, also known as the "Committee", is available on the site under the heading "The committee". Its "Statutes" (Articles of Association) are published in the Moniteur Belge and can be consulted on that site.