AHEPA E-News Volume 16, Issue 4 | Wednesday, January 26, 2022

American Hellenic, American Jewish Groups Hold Forum with U.S. Ambassadors

The Order of AHEPA, the American Hellenic Institute (AHI), B’nai B’rith International, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, held a virtual Ambassadors Forum with the American ambassadors to Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, January 19, 2022. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus Judith Garber, and U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt, briefed the leadership of each of the four organizations on the 3+1 framework in the Eastern Mediterranean, touching on developments in sectors such as energy, defense and security, commerce, and tourism. Supreme President Jimmy Kokotas and Executive Director Basil N. Mossaidis represented AHEPA. read more

Join Us for the 2022 Monthe Kofos Memorial Golf Tournament

We are excited to announce the 2022 Monthe Kofos Memorial Golf Tournament will be hosted at the fabulous Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa, Palm Springs, California, April 5 to 9. This amazing resort has incredible amenities for the entire family, a Pete Dye and Gary Player signature course, with stunning views. It has been a while since we’ve been to California, so don’t miss out on this event! Book by March 5, 2022.

Informational Flyer

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AHEPA Stem Cell Donor Appeal The AHEPA Supreme Lodge is asking for the community's help to find a stem cell donor match for Andrea (Demetriou) Kalliaras, the sister of one of our brothers in District 5. Andrea is suffering from a rare form of leukemia that can only be cured by a stem cell transplant. To see if you are able to help, please visit swab4andrea.com and register to receive a free test swab kit.

Call for Applications: Scholar-Athlete Scholarships, Athletic Hall of Fame Honors

Annually, AHEPA presents scholarships and awards to outstanding athletes, scholar-athletes, and former athletes at the AHEPA Family Supreme Convention. Don't miss this opportunity! Do you know of a standout athlete who excels in their individual sport(s) or who displays excellence in the classroom and volunteerism? Or a former athlete or sports industry leader worthy to join the ranks of 150-plus members of the AHEPA Hellenic Athletic Hall of Fame that includes the likes of Harry Agganis, Alex Karras, Pete Sampras, and other greats?  Deadline: March 15, 2022

Hall of Fame Application

Scholar-Athlete Scholarship Application

2022 National Scholarship Application Open

The AHEPA Educational Foundation has made the 2022 National AHEPA Educational Foundation Scholarship Application available on the AHEPA website. Please visit the link to learn about eligibility criteria for the scholarship as well as the scholarships available this year. The deadline to submit an application for the 2022 AHEPA Educational Foundation Scholarship is March 31, 2022.

Apply Today

Sons of Pericles Launches Online Store The Sons of Pericles has revamped its website, sonsofpericles.org, just in time for the New Year! Visitors can pay Sons of Pericles dues online as well as shop for Sons of Pericles merchandise and gear in the first official online store. The site is still under construction. However, there's plenty of merch to buy with more on the way. So visit and stock up today!

SOP Online Store

Emergency Relief Fund Opened for Natural Disasters Supreme President Jimmy Kokotas (pictured delivering food in Kentucky) announced the AHEPA Emergency Fund is open and accepting donations for natural disaster relief. Donations are being accepted online or via mail: AHEPA Emergency Fund c/o AHEPA Global Headquarters 1909 Q Street, NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 Coverage in Pappas Post

Donate Today

AHEPA Centennial Convention Magic Awaits Us in 2022! AHEPA celebrates 100 years in 2022! To commemorate this historic event, we're taking you back to the happiest place on earth, the Walt Disney World Resort® in Orlando, Florida! Pack up the family and bring plenty of sunscreen and join us at this once in a lifetime celebration of a century of service! make a reservation and more info

Upcoming Events & Deadlines

February 1 | Deadline: Spring 2022 The Ahepan magazine 25 - 27 | SOP & MOA Greeks in Miami Volleyball Tournament March 5 | AHEPA Region 6 100 Year Celebration hosted by District 13, Des Plaines, Illinois 5 | Deadline: Register for the Monthe Kofos Memorial Golf Tournament 15 | Deadline: AHEPA Athletic Hall of Fame, Scholar-Athlete Scholarship applications 31 | Deadline: National Educational Foundation Scholarship application

Greek American News Digest  Editor's Note: Editorials, commentaries, opinion pieces, and articles are shared for information purposes only and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the Order of AHEPA, its affiliated organizations, and members  Greece Snowstorm: Thousands of drivers left stranded as storm hits Athens BBC (Jan. 25) Thousands of motorists left stranded on a motorway around the Greek capital Athens have been rescued overnight after a severe snowstorm swept across the Mediterranean region. read more Greece boosts air force with advanced French jet fighters Associated Press (Jan. 19) French-built fighter jets roared Wednesday over the Acropolis as Greece races to modernize its military and flaunts new security alliances aimed at checking neighboring Turkey. read more US academics use radar to help seek missing in split Cyprus Associated Press (Jan. 21) U.S. academics who help locate Holocaust mass graves and execution sites in Eastern Europe have used ground-penetrating radar to seek burial sites on Cyprus of people missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion and earlier interethnic strife. read more Will 2022 be the breakthrough year for Greek startups? Sifted (Jan. 25) On the edge of Europe, Greece is often overlooked as a startup hub. But 2021 was a record year for the country in terms of investment, to the tune of over half a billion euros in funding. read more New Research Tracks Ancient Artifacts Looted by the Nazis New York Times (Jan. 18) Scholars are increasingly focusing attention on the seizure and excavation of antiquities from Greece and other countries by German forces during World War II. read more Scholars to Host Virtual International Greek Ancestry Conference January 29-30 Pappas Post (Jan. 18) The second International Greek Ancestry Conference will take place virtually from January 29-30, hosted by Greek Ancestry and live-streamed on YouTube. read more

Now Available!

COUNCIL OF THE EU,Library Blog:The common side of the euro coin

 

Library blog Tuesday 25 January 2022

● General Secretariat of the Council   The common side of the euro coin   With the decision now taken on the name of the new European single currency, questions on some technical aspects started to arise. The design of the coins was one of the issues. This final post in the Council Archives series on the origins of the euro explores how the decisions on the design of euro coins, particularly the common side, were taken.

Guest blogger: Central Archives of the Council of the European Union

EU Heads of States (Photographic Archive of the EU. 1997-97714-HS-1009)

 

When designing the single currency, the euro had the complex challenge of representing all Europeans, yet not being devoid of ‘personality’. The design was, therefore, a fundamental factor in raising public acceptance. This final post in the Council Archives series on the origins of the euro explores how the decisions on the design of euro coins, particularly the common side, were taken.

At the European Council in Madrid in December 1995, the 15 member states agreed on the name of the new currency – the ‘euro’ – but some still had doubts about public acceptance of the new European currency. Replacing the old national currencies was a process that could meet with reticence.               

The design of the future coins was to be addressed at an informal Ecofin meeting in Verona of 12 and 13 April 1996, which resulted in concrete decisions being taken on the design of the new euro coins. A note to the Secretary-General of the Council, Mr Jürgen Trumpf, on the preparation of the Verona meeting, gives a good insight into the expectations: 

 ’This discussion is not of crucial importance but may turn out to be time-consuming.’               

The design of the euro coins was certainly not the most important topic for economic and monetary integration, but it was a sensitive one. States would be giving up a national symbol found in the pocket of every citizen, in favour of a common future.          

Five main topics regarding the design of the coins were to be discussed in Verona, prior to launching a competition for selecting the final design:

• discussion of the idea of launching two main themes for the competition, ‘architectural and ornamental styles’, proposed by the member states’ mint masters, and ‘aims and ideals of the European Union’, proposed by the Monetary Committee, with a third theme, ‘European personalities’, proposed by Germany
• the choice between a coin with two common faces, and a coin with a common reverse side and an obverse side specific to each member state
• the name of the subunit of the euro
• the utilisation of the Greek alphabet on the euro coins
• finally, the materials to be used and the use of nickel; there was an issue with this due to the allergies caused by this material and legislation in Sweden restricting its use.

Handwritten notes from the meeting indicate that a high level of consensus was reached on most of the questions:

• regarding the main subjects for the contest, the German proposal did not meet with much success, despite being supported by France; it was, however, included later in the competition
• it was decided that the new euro coins would have a common face and a national one. This was agreed by most of the participants, but the Spanish and Belgian delegations raised the fact that the coins would need to be repatriated back to the country where they were minted (finally it was decided that this would not be necessary)
• the subunit of the euro would be called the ‘cent’.

Yet, despite these successes, not every topic could be agreed. The issue of the materials created tensions between the Swedish minister and other European delegations, who were of the opinion that the new European coins could not have a lower quality than that of the national currencies. However, the biggest tension arose from the demands of the Greek minister that the Greek alphabet be on all coins; his counterparts asserted that, since there would be a national side, there was no need to use both the Latin and Greek alphabets.  But those issues would end up being discussed in detail at a later stage; for now, another long journey began, the road to reach consensus on the common side of the coins. 

The decision taken in Verona regarding the two faces of the coins was confirmed at the June 1996 European Council in Florence. Subsequently, a competition for the design of the common side of the new currency was launched by the European Commission.

• The visual Characteristics of the Euro coins’.

The competition had two main phases: firstly, a selection at national level in which every member state would submit three complete sets of coins to the European authorities, and secondly, a final selection by an all-Europe jury.

The series presented by the artists had to follow one of the three themes proposed in Verona: ‘ornamental and architectural styles’, ‘ideals of the EU’ and ‘European personalities’. They also had to include the value and the name ‘euro’.

On 13 March 1997, a meeting took place of the European judging panel composed of independent experts. All member states (except Denmark, which was not participating in the competition) would submit a shortlist of nominated specialists and the Commission would select one from each participating member state. The meeting was chaired by David Williamson, Secretary-General of the European Commission.

Creators from all over Europe presented up to 36 different models for the new currency, although not all themes were represented evenly. In particular, there were very few series for ‘European personalities’. The jury was therefore obliged to modify the selection conditions. Ideally, they would have chosen the best three series under the three main themes, but the fact that the models were unevenly distributed forced the jury to choose the best nine series, regardless of the theme.          

The jury made their choice following a series of criteria:

• creativity
• aesthetics
• functionality
• likely public perception and acceptability.

Nevertheless, they also considered it desirable for the coins to include symbolism easily understood by the public and have some artistic merit.  

Nine designs were chosen that day, followed by days of public polling among representatives of consumer associations, people with visual impairments, and professionals from all over Europe. Months later, at the Ecofin meeting of 9 June 1997, finance ministers evaluated the chosen models with a view to announcing the final choice during the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June.

The jury chose the work of a Belgian artist Luc Luycx, designer at the Royal Mint of Belgium. This series - polling 63.8% - was also the public choice.

Luycx’s design aimed to be 'clear and easy to use, understandable for all and defining the euro as the currency of Europe and Europeans’. In this it succeeded, because today the work of the Belgian designer is carried in the pockets of millions across the EU.

• 'Briefing 36, Billets et Piѐces Euro: les caractéristiques techniques’ Task Force sur l'Union Economique et Monetaire , Parlement européen

With this decision, the common face of the euro became a reality. This step brought the new European Currency closer to the people for its introduction on 1 January 2002.

This is the final post in a series by the Archives of the Council of the European Union on the origins of the euro. The first three entries can be accessed below.

• How did we get to a single currency?

• The ‘troublesome’ ECU: the ancestor of the single currency

• Ecu, euro or euromark? The name of the single currency

This post does not necessarily represent the positions, policies, or opinions of the Council of the European Union or the European Council.

The Council Library reading room is open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12.00 to 15.00. The Info Desk remains open online from Monday to Friday.

French Presidency:Informal Meeting of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education, Research and Innovation

25/01/2022 20:00 | Press releases Press Release - Informal Meeting of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education, Research and Innovation On 24 and 25 January 2022, the EU ministers responsible for higher education, research and innovation met in Paris, in the context of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union

On 24 and 25 January 2022, the EU ministers responsible for higher education, research and innovation met in Paris, in the context of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union


They met at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie at the invitation of the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal. The ministers discussed the future of universities for Europe, and the need in this regard to better combine European policies for higher education, research and innovation.

At a first discussion with professors from the Collège de France, the ministers reiterated the need for transformation in the sector of European higher education so as to respond to existing and future challenges, particularly the green and digital transitions. The ministers also affirmed their intention to support establishments in the process of transformation in order for them to contribute to the major priorities of the EU, such as the European Green Deal, digital decade and industrial strategy.

The ministers also underscored the international dimension of European policy regarding higher education, research and innovation and the importance of cooperating with third countries. With the aim of ensuring a safe and conducive environment for the work of students and international researchers, the ministers recognised the need to promote balanced and reciprocal collaboration with third countries based on shared principles and values.

Lastly, the ministers discussed strengthening inter-university cooperation in Europe, on the basis of the recent proposals made on 18 January 2022 by the European Commission: a European Strategy for Universities and a proposal for a Council Recommendation on building bridges for effective European cooperation in higher education. The ministers pledged full support to alliances such as European Universities and recognized the need to make further progress for the benefit of the entire European sector of higher education, in particular by working towards a unique legal statute to allow universities to deliver European degrees, jointly recruit the best researchers and students at international level and establish joint structures such as state-of-the-art laboratories.

In this respect, the ministers committed to begin work in the coming months to remove the barriers facing alliances such as European Universities, by providing them with a set of instruments and contributing towards securing their future by exploiting synergies between European, national and regional financing mechanisms.