WHO WE ARE

The International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe gathers the Guides and Scouts of Europe’s national associations of 27 European and North American countries in a brotherhood of scouts beyond national borders.

For more than 60 years, the International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe – Federation of European Scouting (UIGSE-FSE), recognised by the Holy See as an international private association of the faithful, has been promoting a genuine brotherhood of the European peoples. With more than 73,000 members, UIGSE-FSE is actively involved in the civil life of these countries and continent. It has participatory status with the Council of Europe and engages there for the family and the dignity of the human person.

This educational movement complementary to the family enhances an approach to educate the whole person, including all the dimensions of the human being and pointing a way to youth to enjoy true personal freedom, the ability to commit for their convictions in their life and to serve their neighbours. It draws its source from Christian anthropology, the Social Teaching of the Church and Lord Baden-Powell’s Scouting method.

All the associations coordinated by UIGSE-FSE practise traditional scouting, on the educational bases set by Robert Baden Powell. They have also preserved the heritage from the founders of Catholic scouting, i.e. Father Jacques Sevin (France), Professor Jean Corbisier (Belgium), and Earl Mario di Carpegna (Italy). The contents of the Law and the Promise, as well as of the Ceremonial, common to all UIGSE-FSE associations, belong to this heritage.