Dear IFSA Northern Europe and NERM 2020 Participants,

our worst worries have come true: we are incredibly sorry and heartbroken to announce that NERM 2020, supposed to happen from April 13th-20th in Eberswalde (Germany), will be cancelled due to the massive outbreak of COVID-19 all over Europe. This joint decision had to be made by our Organising Committee, the University Board and the IFSA Board after long and intense discussions, while constantly monitoring the situation which got worse and worse.

At the current status, universities all over Germany are closing as well as all public institutions, while big events are being forbidden. It is important to notice that more and more countries are closing their borders or are cancelling flights and train rides – even if we didn’t cancel NERM, many of you would not be able to arrive here.

We have a huge social responsibility for our surrounding and we all must contribute to keeping the infection rate as low as possible. As young people, we are the least affected by this virus, but it is essential to act in solidarity with the most vulnerable for the best interest of our society.

What does this mean for you?

  • Travel tickets: If you have already bought the tickets for your travel, please check if they are reimbursable.
  • Participation fee: Our University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde (which was responsible for collecting the money on their bank account) has promised to take care of the refund of the participation fee (please consider that this might take some time and we have to ask you for your patience, more details will follow soon).

We were really excited about hosting you here and we were working hard to ensure a professional event organisation with a rich, interesting and diverse programme.

A discussion on the future of NERM 2020 and of the Region will follow (eg postponing NERM or organising RRs pre-selections and NERM2021 elections online), but for now, we wanted to inform you as quick as possible of the decision taken. In any case, IFSA is working to provide substitute online activities during this part of the year to replace the cancelled events, making sure that our community will go ahead in our Region.

Last but not least, IFSA has established a COVID-19 Task Force to facilitate a communication channel between our LCs and members, with information from credible sources and updates from IFSA which can be found on the Covid-19 webpage.

Should you have any more questions or concerns, please reach out to the following persons or addresses:

On behalf of the organizing committee, with the support of the IFSA Board,

Hanna Lietz
Head of NERM 2020 Organizing Committee

Damiano Cilio
IFSA Vice-president