This issue of the Bulletin of European Association for Earthquake Engineering is the last issue of its kind.  The Bulletin has been published with some intervals and some modifications for 21 years ever since it was first published in Skopje.  During this period it was mostly the only publication of EAEE. As the Secretary General, I took the responsibility of publishing the Bulletin, approximately nine years ago in 1994. We published the Bulletin for eight years with the support of the Turkish National Committee of Earthquake Engineering and Istanbul Section of the Chamber of Civil Engineers. We are very grateful to both organizations.

EAEE has been changing over the years and the Bulletin tried to communicate its story. During the 1998-2002 period, these changes have led to some significant developments in our organisation and 2002 London Conference marked this turning point in the EAEE history. The details of all these developments are summarised in this issue.

As of 2003 we are starting to publish a peer reviewed technical journal in cooperation with Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (BEE), the Official Publication of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering.  We are count on your support and your contributions.

The EAEE Statutes have been modified and we opened our doors to individual memberships.  Membership fees were introduced in order to be more self sufficient and more effective.

The World around us has been also changing rapidly during the last decade, Europe is now more unified as European Union and most of the research activities related to earthquake engineering are being conducted under the auspices of EU.

In the light of all these changes, we felt that EAEE should also move in the same direction with anticipation of being a truly independent non-governmental organisation in Europe and in its near vicinity with its doors open to everybody from all parts of the World.  Our aim is to increase the cooperation among researchers and practitioners in the field of earthquake engineering for the purpose of mitigating the earthquake risks. 

During the recent years we have witnessed devastating earthquakes both in Europe and abroad leading to large number of casualties and significant economic losses.  All these unfortunate events demonstrate the importance of the earthquake risk mitigation and the necessity of having an effective organisational structure to fight back with this problem.  Europe and its near vicinity have been suffering from earthquakes ever since humans started to live in these regions.  Europe with its history, culture and experience should be able to overcome this problem.  EAEE has important responsibilities to support and if possible coordinate this ongoing struggle between the forces of Nature and human beings to have safer dwellings, safer cities and safer environment.

We believe that the path leading to this goal requires close cooperation among all who are working in the related fields.  Thus the motivation behind all the modifications implemented in the organisation of EAEE is directed to this goal.

This last issue of the Bulletin of European Association for Earthquake Engineering is marking the change in the EAEE history.  EAEE has always been an active association serving well to the aims of the Association set forward by its predecessors.  We are highly indebted to those who decided to establish the EAEE approximately 40 years ago after the devastating 1964 Skopje Earthquake.  Now it is our turn to seek for more effective and productive organisational model to enhance our capabilities and to join forces in our struggle to minimise the earthquake induced vulnerabilities of the man-made environment.

Even though it has been approximately forty years since 1963 Skopje Earthquake and approximately three hundred years since the most devastating European earthquake in Lisbon, it seems that earthquakes can still claim for large casualties and economic losses as we have witnessed in the recent years. In the research front significant progress has been achieved. However, it is difficult to say that we had implemented all these findings into our standard engineering practice.

We must also realise that with the modernisation of the human societies and man-made environment, our vulnerabilities are changing and in some cases are increasing. With larger and higher engineering structures, with more sensitive and more sophisticated electronic world that surrounds us, we are more vulnerable in a different way against earthquake induced effects.

There seems to be a significant gap between the research and civil engineering applications in terms of conventional and modern needs of the man-made environment.  One of the important reasons of this gap lies in the effectiveness of the dissemination of the knowledge among the practitioners and the feed back from the practitioners to the researchers to advance and to improve the existing systems.  One of the main objectives of EAEE should be to close this gap. 

Lastly, personally and as Secretary General of EAEE, I would like to express our sincere thanks to those who supported the publication of this Bulletin in different ways.  This is not a farewell article but rather an invitation to all to join forces with EAEE by becoming individual or organisational members and to move into a more effective organisational model. 

We are hoping to see you all as new EAEE members, actively taking responsibilities in EAEE in the near future.

Atilla M. Ansal

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