EWC POSITION PAPER
EWC STATEMENT
Ukraine: European and International Writers and Translators against War and Violence – 53 Chairs and Presidents from 29 countries signed the declaration
#StandwithUkraine – HOW TO SUPPORT
Ми засуджуємо злочини Путіна проти демократії та людства.
Украина: писатели Европы против войны и насилия
PRESS RELEASE One Year of Crisis: The Winter of our Discontent
9 November 2021: EUPL 2021 AWARD CEREMONY
To the Members of the European Parliament DROI Subcommittee on Human Rights
Forced liquidation: The European Writers’ Council stands with its member, the Union of Belarusian Writers
Belarus: Radical crackdown against the Free Word
EWC demands support for writers, translators and cultural workers fleeing Belarus
EUROPEAN WRITERS’ COUNCIL (EWC)
Fédération des associations européennes d’écrivains (FAEE – AISBL)
The European Writers’ Council represents 160,000 professional writers and translators in the book and text sector in all genres, from all over Europe.
The European Writers’ Council is the federation of 46 national organisations of professional writers and translators in 30 countries including the EEA and EU, as well as Belarus, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom, altogether writing in 32 languages.
EWC’s member associations represent 160,000 individual authors in the book and text sector in all genres.
The EWC defends the professional interests of its members in economic, legal and political contexts, their right to remuneration and compensation for their works, their relevance in cultural and social policy, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the importance of lesser spoken and written languages.
The EWC champions the diversity of literatures while raising awareness for both the role of authors in society and the need to have their social, moral and economic rights respected in the digital age.
The EWC promotes the need for a wider access to culture, including the production of special formats for the visually impaired persons of the world.
The EWC remains determined to raise and publicly present the commitment of professional writers and translators to shaping the profile of Europe through individual creativity within the diversity of expressions in the rich variety of living European languages.
The EWC was part of the consortium implementing the European Union Prize for Literature from 2009-2021, in collaboration with the European Commission.
The EWC-EWC/FAEE aisle’s official aims and mission are to represent the professional interests of the creators of literature: poetry, fiction and non-fiction, juvenile and children’s literature, drama, screenplay, core texts for audiovisual works and translation of all forms of literary works, while contributing to the debate on the role of authors, culture and cultural policy in Europe and the world; to facilitate trans-European cultural & literary co-operation,and to advocate for the literatures of Europe, cultural and linguistic diversity, and also to promote the writers’ contribution to culture, including in the lesser known languages.
Our mission comprises three main objectives/domains within the European context:
- Authors’ Rights, including Copyright
- Cultural Policy
- Cultural Exchange
The EWC is legally represented by the Executive Board: the President and up to two Vice-Presidents, plus up to four regular board members. These professional writers act in an honorary capacity and are elected or re-elected by the EWC Assembly for the term of two years.
The delegates of each organisation gather each year in a European city and participate in the Annual General Assembly, which is the main governing body.
The duty of running the day-to-day business and of implementing the policies and work programme has been assigned to the Secretary-General who is our legal representative and spokesperson, working in close contact with the Board whose members live in seven different countries of Europe.
The size and scope of this continuous work in co-operation with other European authors’ organisations, stakeholders in the book and publishing chain, collective management organisations (CMOs), the European Parliament, and the European Commission to name just a few, depends on the financial resources of the EWC: These are scarce, as with many independent non-profit authors’ organisations.
The EWC is currently funded by the annual membership fees and donations.
