Long-standing national UFO organizations exist in several European countries, some of them having been active for decades. Regular exchanges of publications, information and documentation among these have also been the rule for a long time.
With the Internet diffusion in the ’90s, such exchanges have found a new, helping tool to be improved. At the same time a new generation of UFO buffs has appeared on the world-wide web, noisily empoisoning the UFO subject presentation in the eyes of both the public and the media. It’s not always easy to distinguish which of the thousands of UFO websites is but a smokescreen for just a handful of newbies (if not even a one-man), holding and spreading their own wild beliefs and crazy claims.
In 1998, a dozen national UFO organizations, sharing a scientifically-oriented approach to UFO phenomena, decided to create a common space on the Internet, a joint mailing list (called EuroUfoList) where they might put information of common interest, discussions about ongoing activities, etc.
On the following year, representatives from half a dozen such organizations (from France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Ukraina) accepted to have a part in the editorial team of the European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies, a new peer-reviewed journal issued by the Totton College, in the United Kingdom (8 issues of which have been published).
Besides representatives from national organizations, the EuroUfo mailing list was later extended to a few individual researchers, thus totaling more than 40 people, connecting from Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
For the first time ever, six of these long-standing organizations agreed to prepare each a poster about themselves, for a common stand at the European UFO Congress in Chalons-en-Champagne, France, while some 20 EuroUfo researchers took that occasion and held a private meeting (by invitation) in order to discuss how to work together for a concrete, common progress
During that meeting, participants agreed to improve and enlarge cooperation and data exchange among European organizations and individuals who are 1) studying UFO phenomena with a scientifically-oriented approach, and 2) accepting to share data, documentation and information.
This EuroUfo.Net portal is the common tool devised to that aim, with a special emphasis on ongoing research activities (who’s doing what) and resources inventories (who’s got what).
EuroUfo.Net is not a federation or an organization, there are no bylaws, membership fees or paperwork. It is just a virtual community of European UFO researchers having the same aims as above.
It was initially promoted by seven national UFO organizations, but it’s open to all those individuals and organizations sharing the same objectives.
Beside this web site, the backbone of this community is [EuroUfo.net] mailing list, which is presently connecting more than 100 researchers from 20 different countries all over Europe.
Participation is by invitation only, and admission to the list is managed by a steering committee formed by 18 people: representatives for each of the promoting organizations plus some independent researchers.