Helped by collaboration with the Apostolic Nuncio and by the experience of pioneering Catholicorganisations in Brussels such as OCIPE (the Jesuit European Information Office), the

Secretariat focused first of all on its information provision mandate by publishing a bulletin called l'Europe au fil des jours and conducted a pastoral reflection specifically on European issues. Some contacts were made with the European Parliament, and an early form of dialogue was established with the European Commission. The Presidents and General Secretaries during the first decade of COMECE - Cardinal Hengsbach (Essen), Mgrs.Hengen and Brand, and Father Huot-Pleuroux - laid the foundations of an organisation that was destined to change constantly, in line with the changing European institutions to which it was providing assistance. But it was at the turn of the 1990s, just when international capitals were undergoing change, that COMECE began to realise just how large its mandate was.

COMECE Executive Committee 1983 Download the picture