Petition: Belgian Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (CegeSoma) under threat

Ulrich Tiedau Discussion

With apologies for cross-posting, please consider signing this petition, especially if you are interested in 20thC Belgian history.

The Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society (CegeSoma) cannot disappear !

CegeSoma is one of the smallest scientific institutes working on the Belgian federal level. It employs around 45 permanent and temporary staff members, and counts on 1,5 million Euro in subsidies and a total budget of 2,5 million Euro. It was founded in 1969, mainly for the study of WWII, and later developed into an internationally acknowledged study centre for the history of the conflicts of the 20th century. The institute combines research, documentation and public history, and is specialised in the study of the darkest years of the first half of the 20th century. It provides services to both society and public administration. For Belgian historians, it serves as a unique platform for collaboration and dialogue beyond all boundaries. In many senses it is also a square peg in a round hole. It is not recognised as Federal Scientific Institution, and does not have a single public servant among its staff. It depends therefore entirely on the yearly subsidies to support its permanent employees.

The consequences of these cutbacks, resulting from the decision of the federal government on 15 October, are nothing less than catastrophic for this small centre. After three years of continuous savings under the previous government, it now faces a reduction of 4% on personnel costs, 20% on operating costs, and 22% on inversions. All accrued reserves will therefore be depleted in 2015. The centre will have to resort to redundancies. However, in this relatively young institute, nobody reaches retirement age in 2015, and most employees are entitled to redundancy payments which exceed the amount of their annual salary. It is about squaring the circle. When yearly economies are needed, decreasing personnel costs by 4% is not enough. Much larger amounts are at stake. Economies will therefore need to be made on the small group of permanent employees, who have by now accumulated an important amount of knowledge and experience throughout their career. We are talking about the small but strong backbone of the institution. If these cutbacks are applied without modification -adding yearly savings of 2% between 2016 and 2019- they will effectively sign CegeSoma's death warrant.

The signatories of this petition think it is important that CegeSoma continues its existence and work. They think it is especially important that this heritage should be safeguarded, studied and made known to a wider public. They ask from Mrs Elke Sleurs, the Secretary of State for Science Policy, that enough funds should be gathered to insure the existence of CegeSoma .

Bruno De Wever (UGent) & Laurence van Ypersele (UCL), leden van de Wetenschappelijke Commissie van CegeSoma.

Link to the petition: https://www.change.org/p/mevr-elke-sleurs-het-cegesoma-dreigt-te-verdwijnen/share