Dear members and visitors,
Before visiting our website, as President of the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association, I would like to welcome you and present some introductory statements as to the "raison d'être" of our association.
ATA (Atlantic Treaty Association) based in Brussels, is an association aiming to enhance dialogue and exchange of opinions in each NATO member country and between those countries regarding the challenges and issues that face the NATO alliance today. In order to enable ATA to properly fulfill its functions, it was decided to decentralize the association at a national level. This led to the creation of the ‘Belgian (Euro) Atlantic Association’ (www.beaa.be) on 21 September 1961.
BEAA is a non-governmental and non profit making organization. Its aim is to promote the principles, ideas and solidarity that lay at the foundations of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty. In 2001, to adjust to the new political and security context prevailing after NATO’s (and the EU’s) enlargement, the Association changed its named to the “Euro-Atlantic Association of Belgium”.
The changes spurred by the events that have taken place over the past two decades have brought to the fore the need to mobilize and include today's youth in a variety of activities organized around NATO’s political and military agenda. This resulted in the creation of the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA - www.yata.org), which is part of ATA. Its main objective is to coordinate and organize various international events and activities for the youth that promote the core ideas as described in the NATO charter. To facilitate the realization of the YATA’s executive boards’ agenda, decentralized non profit making autonomous national representative associations were created, of which the Belgian Euro-Atlantic Youth Association.
Since our creation, our youth association has encountered some changes both in our executive board as well as in our co-operations with other partners. With this New Year, we are preparing for a new start, with new ideas, activities, members and partners. To have a more detailed explanation of our objectives and activities please check our goals.
As President, I want to welcome you to our association. All new memberships are strongly encouraged as each new member reinforces the purpose of our association and contributes to our ability to expand our leverage regarding the youth in Belgium. We cannot underestimate the vital role of the youth in shaping the future. The youth represents our future and we cannot create a prosperous future without listening and taking their ideas, visions and perceptions into account. Existing ideas and perceptions are necessary to maintain existing structures and political institutions and organizations. Yet, with new generations new ideas are born. These do not only challenge current existing organizational frameworks and perceptions but can help to contribute to enhancing these organizations ability to adapt to new and changing societies, cultures, needs and environments.
I hope to be able to welcome you soon as one of our new members.
To become member please click here.
Thank you for visiting our website and we hope that you will enjoy it
Sofie Rafrafi
President BEAY