CPLOL NewsCPLOL General Assembly in Helsinki11, 12 and 13 May 2001 This year the CPLOL General Assembly took place in May in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. Over three days, the temperature dropped by 15 degrees, but the sun was such a presence that it forgot to set for more than 4 hours a night and it enabled us to pay a short visit - between meetings - to this capital city of 500,000 inhabitants and to sail in the Baltic Sea archipelago while enjoying a dinner hosted by the Finnish organisation.  
  However, it proved difficult to let them go completely, so Pierre has agreed to finalise the database and Jacques will keep an eye on the website. The new Executive Committee is composed of Dietlinde Schrey-Dern (Germany), President; Bent Kjaer (Denmark), Secretary General; Josiane Jacobs (Luxemburg), treasurer; Aileen Patterson (United Kingdom), Vice-president for education; Tina Faber (Luxemburg), Vice-presiden for research-publications-congresses; Birgitta Rosen-Gustafsson (Sweden), Vice-president for prevention; Louis Helen (Belgium), responsible for international relations.  Reading through the report of activities for 1999-2001 reveals just what distance CPLOL has travelled since its creation. Numerous projects have been undertaken resulting in the production of European documents: for example, 'Guidelines on prevention', or the 'Professional profile' or the 'Charter of ethics'. In the near future, a poster will be published in all the languages, covering the development of language in early childhood.  After completing the bibliographical database, the research-database-congresses commission is now laying the foundations of an important documentary record of centres of research into language sciences in Europe.  Another important area covered by the commission concerned with continuing professional development has involved the international classification of disorders, with a project on the WHO's 'ICIDH -2'.  The next CPLOL congress will take place in 2003. The title will be 'Evidence-based practice' thus taking a theme that is applicable to all areas of the profession. Everything necessary to optimise clinical practice will be addressed. A call for papers will be issued in the near future. 
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The southern part of the country has 17 inhabitants per km2 whereas Lapland, inside the Arctic Circle, has only two. As a result, it is possible to travel for kilometres through lakes and pine forests without meeting a living soul, apart from the reindeer, whose meat cooked in the Finnish style is a delicious dish.
A significant period of office was drawing to a close. The statutory term of office (6 years) of four of the eight members of the Executive Committee had expired and they stepped down from the Executive Committee with pride in what CPLOL had achieved since it was set up 13 years ago. Thalia Zolotas from Greece was replaced by Louis Heylen, a Flemish-speaking Belgian, who will take over the area of international relations; Marianne Leterme (Belgium) hands over her role in education to Aileen Patterson (United Kingdom). Pierre Dessailly, also a Walloon, who chaired the Research-Publications-Congresses commission, was pleased to be succeeded by Tina Faber (Luxemburg). Finally, the founding President, Jacques Roustit, handed over as Secretary General to Bent Kjaer, from Denmark. Linda and Bent - who epitomise fiery and phlegmatic approaches in a brilliant duet - paid emotional and warm thanks to these key figures in the creation of CPLOL.
Also worthy of note was the unanimous decision on