Now this conference comes to its end. It is the custom to give some statistics, and, although the final numbers are not yet known, I will respect this custom. The number of participants is 759, and it has been fixed lately due to the registrations on site, which are approximately 90. There were 41 accompanying persons, and I hope they had nice visits in Paris. 46 persons went to Saclay to visit the CEA facilities. There are 18 registrations for tomorrow's technical visit, and I wish them a very nice trip to Normandy.

Of course, the accounts are not yet closed, but we already knew before that they were probably going to be critical. Nevertheless, given the figure concerning the number of participants, it can be anticipated that the financial balance will be reached. Whatever the final financial situation will be, the Steering Committee has done its best to help some scientists from several countries, and a financial support for registration fees has been offered to approximately 134 persons, including students. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to obtain more support from international organisations for accommodation and travel; nevertheless, we can note that the majority of the supported persons could find a sufficient complementary financing to be able to come. Once again, I would like to thank our sponsors for their financial support, which was necessary for us to be able to organise this conference.

Concerning the organisation of the sessions, as I said during the opening session, we have tried a kind of experiment with the workshops. It is difficult to draw final conclusions and plans for the organisation of future conferences without analysing the facts in more detail, but we can say that the few difficulties which have been encountered during the sessions could be dealt with, and that, although some improvements are necessary, this kind of organisation can survive from this experiment and offers a suitable diversity and interest. It will be an interesting task for our colleagues from United Kingdom, who have won a four-year job for the organisation of the XIIth European Conference, to think of a suitable organisation, and I trust they will benefit from what we have learned here. I wish them good luck, and I trust they will do their best to offer us a wonderful conference, in four years from now, in London.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed your stay in Paris, and that you will keep good memories of this conference. I would like once again to highlight the efforts made by my colleagues of the Steering Committee. They all did a wonderful job, and none of them has shown any weakness or lassitude during these last four years. We should also thank the themes co-ordinators, the members of the scientific committee, the moderators and the chairpersons for their job which was of course of great importance in the progress of the sessions. I will make a special mention to Françoise Bourgain and Séverine Dufour who have been so patient with me during these years, and to the staff and the students who have helped us during this week.

As for our European Association, we had a meeting of the Executive committee on Monday, and of course the General Assembly on Wednesday. We will have a meeting of the new Executive Committee after the end of this ceremony. The previous Executive Committee drew conclusions of his actions during these last four years. This work has been very important under the Presidency of Rainer Flesch, for instance with a new concept of task groups which has been promoted and has been developed in practical terms. Some of the groups have reported their work during this conference, and have shown a new interest in this work. A modification of the statutes of our association was necessary to organise these groups so that they can take in charge limited topics.

Two Regional Seminars have taken place during this period, and were successful. A new chart for these seminars has been adopted by the Executive Committee, and the rules for their organisation are now clearly stated.

A web site has also been opened and is continuously informed by our Secretary General, Atilla Ansal, and you can now find on this site a lot of useful information concerning Earthquake Engineering and the life of our association.

All this and other things have been done and are on good tracks now. This good health of our European Association is of course due to the dynamism of all its National Members, of the convenors and the participants of the working groups, but we should recognise that it has been mainly due, during this period, to the action of Rainer Flesch who has been our President for four years, and to Atilla Ansal, our Secretary General, who accepted this function in Vienna, and who successfully assured this difficult task. Due to our statutes, Rainer has left his duties as President and become the new first vice-president, and we have all to thank him very much for his action. Atilla has accepted to continue as Secretary General, and I feel much more comfortable in having such a strong Secretary General with me.

27 nations were present at the General Assembly, which is noticeable as we have now 29 members. Atilla Ansal will give you some more details on what has been decided there. As I mentioned previously, we have decided that the next European Conference will take place in London, and Amr Elnashai has been nominated as vice-president and representative of the Executive Committee in the organisation of this XIIth Conference, which will be handled by the British Association, the SECED.

This European Conference punctuates the life of our association every four years and is a very important event which I hope will take more and more importance for the European earthquake engineers and scientists, in alternance with the World Conference. But I personally give a great importance to the advanced training of young researchers and engineers, as they will in the future be the scientific army which will contribute to mitigate the seismic risk. Concerning this issue, we have to allow a particular care to our Regional Seminars, as they are very good opportunities for exchanging ideas between young researchers and engineers. I think that, if we have enough volunteers to organise such seminars among our National Members, we should increase the number of seminars until the next European Conference.

We have also to examine the conditions for the participation of the European Association in more traditional courses for the training in the field of Earthquake Engineering, mainly in the countries where the seismic risk is important, and the financial means for such training is not sufficient. We have also to better organise the spreading of the scientific information between all our National Members, which can be done through the working groups and tasks groups, which could also participate more in the Regional Seminars or in specific symposiums. Another mean is the publishing of scientific articles from our scientists, and the present situation could be improved.

All these future actions obviously pose the problems of the means and of the financing. The Executive Committee will have to work on these problems and I hope that solutions will be found.

In every situation, one must ask oneself the meaning of one's actions. As scientists, we have a responsibility towards Mankind. More precisely, as we are concerned, we have the responsibility of keeping current the knowledge in our domain of Earthquake Engineering, in order to attain in a very near future that all Mankind be protected from the convulsive movements of the earth. Scientists alone cannot solve this problem, and a political will is necessary, notably for implementing the necessary financing schemes. The classical economical circuits have also an important role to play, for it is they who, in practice, set up the protective measures. Nonetheless, the role of our associations is irreplaceable, for they are driven by scientific aims which are by nature universal. Their main concern must be the progression and the widest diffusion, especially towards the most disadvantaged countries, of scientific knowledge.

But we are also in the midst of our world, and the rules which prevail for all human societies are also applicable to our associations. Their vitalism is linked to their capacity for self-interrogation, if not on a permanent basis, at least periodically. That is why I am persuaded, and do not doubt that they shall do it, that all the associations who are members of our European Association must redouble their efforts so that their manner of functioning be the most democratic as possible, and can offer to young researchers and engineers opportunities to take responsibilities and prepare the future. It is not a formal wish, I consider that it is a necessary condition if all of us want to progress, having in mind the interests of the populations who expect from us, very often without knowing it, the means for protecting themselves.

But let's stop here this philosophical wandering and get back to our conference. I hope that, despite the unavoidable mishaps, you have spent an interesting week on a scientific level, and a pleasant one socially. It was our intention, and I hope that we achieved our goal.