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History of the Académie Européenne de Philatélie (AEP)
Before turning to the more essential aspects of the AEP, let’s first take a look at some facts and figures, illustrating the historical path the Academy took over the 33 years of its existence.
It was in 1977 that two major French philatelists had the idea to create an international academy for postal studies, but is was only in 1978 that the “Academy for Postal Studies” was founded in Paris by Jean Storch and Robert Françon. It was to change its name twice : in 1988 it became the “European Academy for philatelic and postal studies” before adopting its present name of “European Academy of Philately” in 2002.
Its successive presidents have been Robert Françon (1977-1980 and 1988-1999), Jean Storch (1981), Pierre Broustine (1982-1983), Philippe Roumet (1984-1988), Jean-Pierre Mangin (2000-2005) and Henk Slabbinck (since 2006).
The number of members increased over the years from 24 in 1978, over 99 in 1997, 230 in 2002 to the 270 at the end of 2010.
What are the specificities of the European Academy and which values does the AEP stand for?
First and foremost the AEP has grown from a rather timid cross-border academy into an important player in the European philatelic world. The latter consists traditionally of national academies (which now exist in most European countries), study circles around a geographical interest or a specific issue or type of stamp, national federations and, finally, a European Federation (FEPA) and an international global one (FIP). All these structures are exclusively geared towards collectors only, whereas our AEP also welcomes philatelic merchants, journalists, engravers, directors of postal administrations, creators of stamps as well as managers of philatelic museums. In other words, the AEP today is the only European entity where all of the above essential players of the philatelic world can meet.
What started in its early days as a French initiative to which a few foreign top philatelists were invited, has by now  become a truly international institution covering almost all of Europe. The present AEP members stem from almost all European countries and this is not due to a pure hazard ; it is the result of a policy which was initiated at the beginning of this century when European political and economical integration once again became more intense and knew a renewed acceleration. Philately could not stay behind and it was felt that an active drive for a truly international and European membership should be undertaken, in correlation with an increased number of members who would ideally come from countries not yet represented in the AEP. Before 2000 the AEP had already created close contacts with major associations in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the United Kingdom and top philatelists of these countries constituted part of the back bone of its core membership. It furthermore had successfully run joint philatelic operations in Portugal, Turkey and Monaco and established close contacts with the academies of Spain and Québec as well as with high-flying Scandinavian and Belgian collectors on an individual basis.
As from 2000 growth would become a prime task for the AEP’s management and the number of international contacts and pace of foreign travel was dramatically increased. As a result the AEP was put on the map in most European countries and membership more then tripled over a period of 4 years. But as is the case for almost all growth processes, if in the end it proved to be a successful move this one did not come without some pains. Managing the growth operation became very complex and the AEP had to enlarge its management team with an increased number of hard working and result delivering members; as was perfectly foreseeable, some new members were happy to enter but turned out to be less active than hoped for ; the effort to look for diversification was not always properly managed, for some persons were allowed to came in who clearly looked at using the AEP for personal propaganda reasons more than for development of joint philatelic efforts and studies. And, least but not least, some members felt that the AEP was gradually giving somewhat too much attention to organising social gatherings, whereas its core objective had to remain the development of international philatelic cooperation, study and innovation.
The AEP being a democratic society, its general assembly in 2006 decided that is was necessary to reconfirm its  values and focus, appointed a new management to which it gave clear directions and also the task to improve relationships which has become stressed with a few other players in the philatelic arena, and asked that new statutes be drafted in order to ensure a more balanced and truly democratic management could be put in place which would have to strictly observe the AEP’s democratic principles as well as a return to focus on philately. In 2007 the new statutes were voted and the present management given its mandate.
Presently the AEP is run by a Belgian President who is supported by a hard working core team and an international Board, elected on the basis of a clear and ambitious program of selective development for the academy. The internationalisation is further being pursued, while over the last years non working or non participating members were let go. International cooperation with other academies and several study groups and associations has been re-introduced and gradually increased, resulting in the organisation of several successful joint events in the UK, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Monaco. More are scheduled to take place within the next 24 months in Spain, Luxemburg, Scandinavia and Russia. However, the most important one in the AEP history is without doubt our presence today in Sindelfingen.
As joint events often imply a number of presentations and conferences by our members and are at times quite complex to organise, the AEP will also support smaller and local events in most European countries, as well organize fact-finding trips to overseas countries such as Mauritius, Canada or the USA; in such case a delegation of our academy would travel to such decentralised events in order to participate in seminars, to assist to conferences and to enjoy the related social events. Indeed, social interaction and contact facilitation amongst philatelic players are of importance to our membership which is always welcome and eager to use the AEP network in order to enhance its international reach.
If group study of stamps and postal history is facilitated through the cooperation between the members, the museums and the study circles, research work by individual members remains at the core of what our academy encourages on a permanent basis. Members doing research often publish their findings in articles of which the most important, innovative and often spectacular ones are being reserved for publication in OPUS, the AEP’s annual star publication of which the 10th issue was printed this year. Since several years now OPUS is focusing in each issue on a specific subject and more than half of its content is reserved for that subject, with in the other half articles on more general topics being presented. The more recent OPUS publications focussed for instance on polar philately, the Olympics, the postal history of Poland or the one of the former European colonies. Over the next years a closer look will most probably be taken at the postal history of Spain and Russia. Articles published in OPUS have by now very often been recognised as benchmarking ones for the philatelic study.
However, paramount to all is our effort on the development of international friendship and the fostering of durable working relationships. All AEP events do have a social part in them, be it a drink or a meal taken in common, during which personal contacts are facilitated and created. If philately does stand at the core of discussions, other interesting topics are welcomed and as such the AEP has become a real pan-European melting pot where members meet in a competition-free environment, also to discuss about the AEP strategy for the coming years. If the latter’s focus remains on high-level and top quality philately, it also has recognised that other goals ought to added such as an encouragement for the creation and repeat publication of philatelic magazines, or the recognition of exceptional work for the development of philately. With help and input of our members active in the philatelic literature world, the AEP grants every year a Special Prize to a most active magazine. It also grants the “Mérite Philatélique Européen” prize on a yearly basis to a philatelist who performed exceptional work for the development of our hobby.
The success of the AEP is such that many philatelists want to join; they can be welcomed but in order to remain a member will have to actively participate in the academy’s live, either by being present at AEP events, by giving conferences, by conducting seminars, or also by providing high quality articles for publication. Given the company’s growth more and more voices are raised to ask for the introduction of a numerus clausus.
Yet for the time being the AEP considers itself still somewhat in expansion and, probably more important, still continuing its effort to further upgrade and intensify the work of its members. The present management team, international but including several Belgians, will be replaced in 2013 by another team which probably will be driven by members of other nationalities and as such should bring a different and new vision on the company and its goals. Innovation and creativity will remain high in the AEP’s banner on a permanent basis though and hence its present successful positioning in the philatelic world will be maintained.
Here in Sindelfingen the AEP management is present to discuss all the above with interested philatelists! www.aephil.net Stand: 3. August 2010
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