Jacques Roustit, Founder president of CPLOL (1986 – 1995) :

Let us go back to this particular evening at the end of 1987. we were organising the 20^th anniversary event of FNO, sitting in front of our Wednesday night beer. Dominique, Jean-Marc and I had a dream!! Liaising all the speech and language therapists/logopedists of the EEC. This was 3 years before the opening of the borders forming the future European Union. This dream had to become reality.

We then sent, like a message in a bottle, an appeal to all the associations from the 12 EEC countries we could get the addresses of. Very rapidly, enthusiastic responses reached us. These associations had agreed to a meeting in Paris, in order to launch a form of European Cooperation.

And in Paris, on March 6^th, the representatives of 10 countries were present. Here is the list of their associations:

Fédération Nationale des Orthophonistes - FRANCE

Union Professionnelle des Logopèdes Francophones - BELGIUM

Vlaamse Vereniging voor Logopedisten – BELGIUM

Audiologopaedisk Forening - DENMARK

Dansk Selskab For Logopaedi og Foniatri - DENMARK

Asociacion Espanola de Logopedia Fonatria y Audiologia - SPAIN

Royal College of Speech Therapists – UNITED KINGDOM

Panhellenic Association of Specialists in Speech and Language Disorders - GREECE

Associazione Logopedisti Piemontisi – ITALY

Association Luxembourgeoise des Orthophonistes - LUXEMBOURG

Zentralverband Fur logopadie - GERMANY

Unione Logopedisti Italiani - ITALY

Nederlandse Vereniging voor Logopedie en Foniatrie – the NETHERLANDS

Associaçao Portuguesa de Terapeutas da Fala - PORTUGAL

Irish Association of Speech Therapists - IRELAND

A charter was signed, which aimed at :

- Implementing harmonisation of the professional statutes

- Studying as a community all necessary texts

- Supporting the development of training and professional practice by reinforcing scientific
exchanges and research

- Following and intensifying the already budding cooperation between speech and language
therapists/logopedists within the EU.

We had to work very quickly on the basis of these broad objectives. The representatives of the member organisations met in Paris in order to define our work. An initial executive committee was elected. It gives me pleasure to name those active founder members.

Marie-Claire Coets, Belgium, Training Committee

Athena Frangouli, Greece, Treasurer

Jean-Marc Kremer, France, General Secretary

Adoracion Juarez-Sanchez, Spain, Research Committee

Janny Vonkeman-Breider, the Netherlands, Professional Practice Committee.

Our first General Assembly was held in Brussels on 1st and 2^nd April 1989. Everything had to be done and built. We started to work with our hearts, our will and our energy, head first in this unknown area, dismantling borders in our minds, opening to other cultures, other backgrounds, other professional experiences.

As in a massive laboratory, communication was essential. We had to learn one common language, we had to share a common terminology.

The goals were set and clear, we then drew up a list of tasks. And the first texts emerged from this jungle of ideas, thanks to our abilities to invent, create, listen and open our minds. The roadmap became clear. Each of the goals you work on today, based on 6 founding resolutions which determined the contour and the future of CPLOL, were already set :

- Professional Profile

- Contents of Initial Training

- Terminological study

- Bibliographical Data Base

- Professional Ethical Charter

- European Day of Prevention (the first one on 14^th November 96)

- Scientific Congresses

- Journals and Documents

We addressed each principal area of speech and language therapy/logopaedics : training, professional practice, prevention, research, information, scientific events.

Giving life to a union between SLTs/logopedists in Europe, also gave us the opportunity to demonstrate our existence to public authorities and other officials. Meetings and documentation helped in doing so.

The first main scientific event for speech and language therapists/logopedists was organised in 1992 in Athens, bringing together nearly 500 SLTs from greater Europe in a scientific congress.

Numerous tasks were carried out thanks to a unique driving force. The spirit of the beginning, fed by great relationships, enabled us, as pioneers, to become true long-lasting friends, and to continue to meet new ones.

I can still remember those early days, evenings and memorable nights spent exchanging, elaborating, and also celebrating the pleasure of being together and of having found new means of cooperation.

During the 7 years of my presidency, a lot was accomplished, a lot was created. Many doors were opened. Several projects were undertaken and must now be continued or restarted. Others should still be improved.

We were acting on faith and one shared vision.

Building European logopaedics is not possible without a minimum of harmonisation. The mutual recognition of our diplomas is a very strong example of this phenomenon.

The speech and language therapists/logopedists of the European Union, by creating the Standing Liaison Committee, have deeply changed our identity and helped to define our areas of skills. They showed they could direct and master harmoniously the way the profession evolves, in a world where everywhere they reach the same audience and benefit from the same interest, in societies where communication holds such an important place.

The creation of CPLOL was very fortunate for Speech and language therapists/logopedists. It is also a wonderful interactive tool and has become a reference in our national negotiations. It also served in its early years as a catalyst to all the efforts made towards professional unity in some nations. I am thinking in particular of Italy and the FLI, which managed to bring together, a mosaic of several associations, which until then dispersed Italian speech and language therapy around the country. I also recall the experience of our German friends who slowly managed to assert a profession, at a time where various competences were overlapping on the same areas of practice.

With these few words, you can understand this professional strategic challenge and the importance CPLOL has had in Speech and Language Therapy/Logopaedics. This is the reason why the Standing Committee is a major asset for the future. CPLOL will have fulfilled its goals, since, as Jean Monnet, one of the important fathers of Europe, declared : “We are building Europe among people, not cooperation between states”.

Efficiency and thoroughness are the key-words in our thinking and our work.

Logopedists are now aware of their identity and their specific approach, which enables them to adopt the orientations wished both for and by their profession. Nobody could nor should do this for us; and since we are at the crossroads of the sciences of language and communication, and able to synthesise multifactorial data in order to implement efficient therapy, we have the responsibility to fully cooperate with all our partners, practitioners or university colleagues: doctors, linguists, phoneticians, neurolinguists, psychologists, pedagogues, biogeneticists and others. This is the price to pay for scientific and methodological thoroughness and efficiency.

How far we have gone in only a few years !

We must assert our will to believe in it. Draw a path, follow it and create.

You will be able to build if you continue to believe that : “Man has the ability to challenge his destiny” and if you give more importance to ideas than to the means.

Believing in one idea

Following it

And keeping to the path no matter what

Our path is the future of logopaedics

In this fascinating journey, each speech and language therapist/logopedist is responsible for enabling us to reach, in shared unity and solidarity, the ambitious yet realistic aims we set ourselves;

So that we can:

Be part of this social struggle which is way larger than our professional interest

Be more and more efficient and available in every area where communication may be weakened in one way or another

So that, for all mankind, progress becomes the synonym of human dignity.

Be generous, full of the everlasting thirst for knowledge, the deep desire to explore together the way ahead for speech and language therapy/logopaedics. Bear in mind this wonderful quote from Albert Camus: “Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present”.