The European Geography Association, abbreviated EGEA, is a European network of geography students and young geographers, with the intention of exchanging geographical knowledge. To achieve this, the entities of EGEA organizes congresses, exchanges between the entities, national weekends, excursions and it is published a scientific magazine. The main communication platform is the website (www.egea.eu).

The aims of EGEA are to offer personal development opportunities to young geographers across Europe, and enable them to fulfill their potential as young scientists. EGEA provides complementary and alternative learning opportunities, beyond formal education of geography. This is done by encouraging and enabling involvement in intercultural interaction, as well as by development of academic, scientific, cultural and professional activities intended for young geographers on terms of equality, diversity and non-discrimination. EGEA actively contributes towards the promotion of geography through its network capabilities and through strategic partnerships, with the ultimate goal to strengthen geography’s place in members’ local communities.

History

In 1987, students from the universities of Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 and Utrecht

Utrecht

Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...

 met and had the idea to start an association to exchange their geographical knowledge between several countries in Europe.
On year later, in 1988 it was getting official by launching a foundation with chair in Utrecht.
EGEA has grown until 2011 from its initial three entities to a current number of 80 entities in 34 different European countries.
The year 1996 gives an initial change for the organization, due to the fact that the first homepage was established.
At the General Assembly 2009 in Heeg

Heeg

Heeg is a small village in Súdwest Fryslân in the province Friesland of the Netherlands and has around 2550 citizens .-History :Because of its location on the Hegemer lake eel fishery and trade have been important to Heeg for a long time. Until 1938 eels from Heeg were exported to London...

 a change of organization was decided. Since then EGEA is working as an Association.

Activities

There are several local, national, and international activities organized by the participants of EGEA. The main events of the year are the congresses. Other yearly events are national weekends and the summer school. In addition, the entities organize their own events. The spectrum of content reaches from scientific seminars or excursions to events, on that the get-together is on of the main focuses. A high popularity are enjoying the exchanges between the entities.

Congresses

Every year five congresses take place. There are four Regional Congress in spring, organized by one or more entities in each region. However the most important event for the association is the Annual Congress, that is organized yearly in September.

The Congresses always include workshops, excursions, trainings and lectures with a scientific background. There are also meetings for Contact Persons of the entities and regional or international assemblies.

Exchanges

Students exchanges are the core activities of EGEA. They enable small groups from 2 or 3 EGEA entities to visit each other in their countries, learn about culture, explore the habits, nature and many interesting places in visiting countries. What is the most important, they make young geography students getting to know their international peers. Following the agreement, one entity is hosting the other one. During the hosting time young people take care of the accommodation, food and programme. Later on the hosting entity becomes the visiting one and repays the visit. Exchanges are numerously the most attended activities, when we take into consideration number of events taking place every year.

Scientific Symposium

Each year at the Annual Congress is also a scientific symposium, where the members can present their scientific work.

Seminars

There are a few seminars every year, always organized by several entities. The seminars are held on a scientific level that cover different themes in the particular disciplines of geography.

Summer-/Winterschools

During the semester breaks in summer and winter EGEA also gives students the chance to participate on selve organized summer- or winterschools.

Weekend Activities

The national or international weekend activities are organized by an entity. Most time the have a main theme to show particular regional or local characteristics. The program spreads between a scientific and a more informal level.

Structure

EGEA is divided into four administrative regions, the North & Baltic, the Eastern, the Western and the Euro-Mediterranean region. Every region has each year an elected Regional Contact Person. As helping hands they have one or more Assistants.
The Regional Contact Persons also form the Board of Egea for one year.

North & Baltic Region

This region is located in Northern Europe around the Baltic Sea. Entity that belong there are situated in: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway. Countries of the region, however without active entities so far are Iceland and Sweden.

Entity	Country
Copenhagen	Denmark
Helsinki	Finland
Joensuu	Finland
Kaliningrad	Russia
Oulu	Finland
Riga	Latvia
Saint-Petersburg	Russia
Tampere	Finland
Tartu	Estonia
Trondheim	Norway
Vilnius	Lithuania

Eastern Region

The Eastern Region is from the areal side the biggest region in EGEA. Part of this region are the entities of Poland, Ukraine, Moldovia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Georgia and also two Russian entities in Moscow and Izhesk in the far east of Europe.

Entity	Country
Bratislava	Slovakia
Brno	Czech Republik
Bucharest	Romania
Cluj-Napoca	Romania
Craiova	Romania
Iasi	Romania
Izhevsk	Russia
Krakow	Poland
Kyiv	Ukraine
Moldova	Moldova
Moscow	Russia
Pécs	Hungary
Poznan	Poland
Prague	Czech Republic
Sighetu Marmaţiei	Romania
Sofia	Bulgaria
Sosnowiec	Poland
Szeged	Hungary
Tiblisi	Georgia
Timisoara	Romania
Torun	Poland
Warszawa	Poland

Western Region

By members and entities it is the biggest region of EGEA. It compasses the British Isles, the Benelux-States, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Entity	Country
Aachen	Germany
Amsterdam	Netherlands
Augsburg	Germany
Belfast	Northern Ireland
Berlin	Germany
Bern	Switzerland
Bonn	Germany
Brussel	Belgium
Edge Hill	England
Erlangen	Germany
Galway	Ireland
Graz	Austria
Groningen	Netherlands
Hannover	Germany
Jena	Germany
Kiel	Germany
Leeds	England
Leuven	Belgium
Mainz	Germany
Marburg	Germany
München	Germany
Münster	Germany
Nijmegen	Netherlands
Osnabrück	Germany
Trier	Germany
Tübingen	Germany
Utrecht	Netherlands
Wien	Austria

Euro-Mediterranean Region

This Region contains all entities of countries that are located around the Mediterranean Sea. There are entities in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.

Entity	Country
Athens	Greece
Barcelona	Spain
Beograd	Serbia
Bologna	Italy
Dijon	France
Israel	Israel
Izmir	Turkey
Koper	Slovenia
La Rochelle	France
Lisbon	Portugal
Lubljana	Slovenia
Maribor	Slovenia
Mytelene	Greece
Novi Sad	Serbia
Roma	Italy
Sevilla	Spain
Skopje	Macedonia
Tirana	Albania
Torino	Italy
Valencia	Spain
Zagreb	Croatia

Board of EGEA

The Board consists of four persons and divides the functions of president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer amongst themselves. The board members are elected by the General Assembly out of members from the Association and in line with the regional division of the Association. A representative of the entity chosen to organize the annual congress will also become a
member of the Board. The Board repents the Association
Added is the team by the Secretariat Director who has the seat in the office at the EGEA Headquarters in Utrecht.
This position is established in 2005 and contrived by the entity of Utrecht.

Year	President	Vice-President	Secretary	Treasurer	Annual Congress Organiser	Secretariat Director
2010/11	Alexandru Drăgan	Sven Vanderhaegen	Kaija Murasov	Mihovil Masic	Carolin Ziegler	Roos Saalbrink
2009/10	Claudia Iordache	Slobodan Cvetkovic	Milda Latakaite	Samantha van der Sluis	Catalina Ionita	Jelle Gulmans
2008/09	Jeroen van Polt	Kamila Jankowska	Milena Karanović	Dennis Söderholm	Martinus Spoelstra	Lisette von Leijenhorst
2007/08	Aleš Oven	Vlad Dumitrescu	Kret Masik	David Jochum	Misha Lobanov	Malou Weber
2006/07	Heli Rekiranta	Alexandros Ziogas	Anastasia Kazakova	Tim van de Laar	Lukasz Jankowski	Gert Ruepert
2005/06	Alois Humer	Vojkan Gajovic	Anna Bieniasz	Sandor Kreuze	Florian Fischer	Gert Ruepert
2004/05	Vita Valuinaite	Igor Pilipenko	Rok Godec	Andrea Jordan	Leftheris Eleftheriadis
2003/04	Leftheris Eleftheriadis	Natalia Krivenok	Kristjan Pärnamägi	Kathrin Klei	Gert Ruepert
2002/03	Jean-François André	Joanna Markowska	Kristjan Pärnamägi	Heidi van Otten	Tomasz Dusza
2001/02	Denis Ceric	Magdalena Bednarz	Erki Saluveer	Winneke Lobeek	Sylvain Rigollet
2000/01	Sylvain Rigollet	Anna Tsukanova	Ann Ideon	Remco van der Hoogt	Wojtek Zalewski
1999/2000	Vera Veranda	Magda Rak	Helle-Mai Pedastsaar	Sebastian Mosler	Primoz Pipan
1998/99	Erika Eloranta	Primoz Pipan	Svetlana Malysheva	Dennis van der Avoort	Tonia Koops
1997/98	Teresa Gomes	Piotr Strubel	Erika Eloranta	Dennis van der Avoort	Catrin Effe
1996/97	Teresa Gomes	Mait Rei	Piotr Strubel	Henk Looijen	Nadia Dida
1995/96	Catrin Effe	Sebastian Pichinski	Helder Santos	Rebecca Haacker	Ricardo Coutada
1994/95	Ricardo Coutada	Ricardo Coutada	Maciej Dabski	Berend Bock	Monika Dittrich
1993/94	Ricardo Coutada	Adam Sniadowski	Ingibjörg Bjornsdottir	Berend Bock	Tiit Tammaru

Partners

EGEA has several partnerships with organizations like EUROGEO, IFISO, AEGEE, eestec, studyportals and BEST

BEST

-Film and television:* Best , a 2000 George Best biopic*The Best , a 2002 cooking programme on BBC2* Best: His Mother's Son, a 2009 made-for-TV drama about George Best's mother-Places:* Best, North Brabant, Netherlands...

. Furthermore there is a partnership to a program by the EU, „Youth in Action“. There are also strong cooperations with ESRI

ESRI

Esri is a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System software and geodatabase management applications. The headquarters of Esri is in Redlands, California....

 a supplier for GIS-programs and with the Utrecht University

Utrecht University

Utrecht University is a university in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. Established March 26, 1636, it had an enrollment of 29,082 students in 2008, and employed 8,614 faculty and staff, 570 of which are full professors....

.