On June 9, 2023, the International Working Group held its meeting at the Brussels Liaison Office of the Federal Chamber of Architects.

In addition to the BAK hosts Kathrin Rapp and Frederic Tenberge's remarks on the topic of professional policy work and communication on a European level, Solène Gautron reported from the EU Commission's Joint Research Centre on the New European Bauhaus (NEB).

The aim of the NEB is for projects, networks and calls for participation to be developed on a small scale in the neighborhood in a sustainable, integrative and aesthetically sophisticated manner; in some cases, start-up funding can be obtained through EU subsidies. Speaker Steffi Schüppel noted that the initiative offers landscape architecture firms a number of interesting participation and project opportunities as well as synergy effects in partnership cooperation.

With representatives of IFLA Europe, among others President Katarina Gkoltsiou, a number of topics were intensively discussed, such as the IFLA recognition of German LA courses of study and possibilities of feeding in contributions or statements on legislative initiatives with direct relevance for landscape architects vis-à-vis the European institutions.

The personal involvement of the individual AK members in IFLA Europe and IFLA World also reflects the range of topics and activities, including the ad-hoc working group to prepare the 75th anniversary of IFLA World (Steffi Schüppel), the World Working Groups on Professional Recognition and Definition (Prof. Fritz Auweck) or Working Group on Communication/"Landscape Knowledge Hub" as a knowledge portal (Gwendolyn Kusters) at IFLA Europe.

The discussion rounds made it clear that networking and personal exchange with political representatives of the EU Commission and the European Parliament represent a great potential for effectively addressing the profession's political concerns. A stabilization of the exchange is aimed at on the different communication channels in the coming years.

Source: bdla association magazine "Landschaftsarchitekten" 3/2023

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