It is with great pleasure that I can announce the election of EUD Director, Helga STEVENS, into the Belgian Regional Parliament of Vlaanderen (Flanders) (Belgium has two regional parliaments: Vlaanderen and Wallonie). The election to these two Belgian Regional Parliaments was held on 13 June 2004 - the same day the election to the European Parliament took place.
Helga was elected for the N-VA/CD&V cartel for a five-year period (N-VA = Nieuwe Vlaamse Alliantie, CD&V = Christen Democraten & Vlaams) and she got 17,870 personal votes which resulted in a place as number 4 of the 7 elected candidates for the province Oost-Vlaanderen. In total the cartel won 35 seats in the Flemish Parliament and it is now the main party in the Flemish Parliament.
It is probably the first time a deaf-born candidate is elected directly into a Parliament in Europe. It is a great step forward for the deaf community and I am sure Helga will do her best to promote and advance the rights for not only the deaf people in Belgium but for all deaf people in Europe. Helga has many contacts within the EU institutions and the Council of Europe which may be used for her work as a parliamentarian.
It is now 8 years ago since Helga was employed as project coordinator for the large EUD Sign Language Project. Having completed this project, Helga was employed as EUD administrator and a few years later she became director after Johan WESEMANN had left. As it is impossible to combine a full time job with the political work, the EUD board now has to discuss what to do when Helga takes her seat in the Flemish Parliament.
On behalf of the EUD I would like to congratulate Helga with her election and I wish her good luck in her new position as a parliamentarian. Perhaps her next step could be election to the European Parliament!

Written by: Knud Søndergaard - EUD President
Fonte: EUDupdate, Giugno 2004