Participants of the 55th ERA Annual Conference at Montserrat Monastery. Photo: ERA
On 5 October 2024, in Montserrat, Catalonia, Clubul Montan Transilvania became a full member of the European Ramblers’ Association (ERA), the European federation of hiking organisations.
In Montserrat
Andrei Rusu represented the club, as its president, at the 55th ERA Annual Conference, held from 3 to 6 October 2024 at Montserrat Monastery and hosted by the Federació d’Entitats Excursionistes de Catalunya (FEEC). It brought together 67 delegates from 24 countries, including guests from Colombia.
Friday, 4 October: the Know-How sessions
The day was about sharing experience between member organisations:
- LQT ViaBerna, a quality trail from the idea to the opening (Bernhard Schmidt);
- LQT-BE Day Walks, ERA’s certification programme for day walks (Steen Kobberø-Hansen, Jana Harnochová);
- accessibility of walking in private areas, for example on farmland (Ankie van Dijk);
- a study on the digital behaviour of hikers (Liane Jordan);
- reducing emissions in huts (architect Nic Tulban);
- E-CrossPass (Ivana Tucović);
- better communication outside the member organisations’ community (Steen Kobberø-Hansen);
- exchange among members from different countries and the activities developed by hiking organisations (Séverine Ikkawi, Sophie Chipon).
The day ended with the SLIDO working group workshop, moderated by Steen Kobberø-Hansen and Joep Naber. The roundtable discussions started from one question: how can the European federation make it easier for hikers to move between countries, so that every European club can walk across the whole playground that is Europe?
Saturday, 5 October: the General Meeting
The General Meeting took place from 9:00 to 11:00. Under item 7a, the ERA Board proposed two organisations for full membership: Clubul Montan Transilvania, from Romania, and the Federata Shqiptare e Alpinizmit dhe Turizmit Malor, from Albania. The Albanian federation thus returned to ERA, having been a member from 2016 to 2022. Both proposals were approved, and from then on the club voted as a full member.
In its application letter, the club introduced itself as it is: founded on 9 June 2022 in Cluj-Napoca, it organises one-day hikes in the Apuseni Mountains. Our aims are to promote Romania as a hiking destination, to exchange experience with the other organisations, to share the Apuseni trails and to organise hikes for members of ERA organisations.
The meeting also approved the ERA Board’s activities for 2023, the strategic plans for 2025, changes to the constitution, a new logo and a new English name, “European Hiking Federation”, used alongside the traditional EWV and FERP names.
After the coffee break came the presentations:
- the E6 event in Slovenia, an E-path workshop (Steen Kobberø-Hansen);
- the Hiker’s friendly label for Baltic trails (Asnāte Ziemele);
- Hiking in Colombia, the country of biodiversity, by Jorge Ríos of the Colombia Hiking Federation;
- the POCTEFA DESIR and ENTREPYR projects of FEEC in the Pyrenees (Josep Casanovas).
With the new members, ERA brings together 63 organisations from 33 European countries: 56 full members and 7 associate members.
The hike and the tour
The conference ended with a hike on Montserrat mountain, where a mosaic dedicated to the conference was unveiled. The programme also included a tour with a visit to a cava cellar.
The conglomerate rock towers of Montserrat. Photo: Andrei Rusu
The mosaic unveiled to mark the conference. Catalonia has hosted the ERA conference three times: Montserrat 1991, Val d’Aran 2002 and Montserrat 2024. Photo: Andrei Rusu
The cellars of a cava house, visited during the tour. Photo: Andrei Rusu
What comes next
The next General Meeting takes place in Mâcon, France, from 2 to 5 October 2025, and the 2026 one in Serbia. Also in 2026, from 20 to 27 September, the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) on the German-Czech border host EURORANDO 2026, the great gathering of European hikers.
The membership certificate, signed by ERA President Boris Mićić. Montserrat, 5 October 2024.
What is ERA
Founded in 1969 in Germany, ERA promotes walking and hiking, trail building and the exchange of experience between hiking organisations across Europe. It coordinates the network of European long-distance paths (the E-paths), waymarked and maintained by its member organisations, and organises Eurorando, the great gathering of European hikers, every five years. The 2021 edition took place in Sibiu.
What it means for the club
- A vote in the ERA General Assembly, as a full member.
- Links with clubs and federations across Europe, to share experience and perhaps hike together.
- Access to the experience of the member organisations, many of them with a long tradition of waymarking and maintaining trails.
- A voice at European level: ERA represents its member organisations before the European Union and the Council of Europe.
For our members and guests, the hikes stay the same: free, organised by members for members and guests. What changes is that we are now part of a European hiking family.
See you in the mountains!
Update: the new name approved in Montserrat has been in use since 2025: European Hiking Federation (“Hiking Europe”).