Foreword ESO’s annual report 2018
Dear reader,
In my capacity as president of the European Skippers’Organisation (ESO) vzw it is truly an honor and pleasure to introduce to you our annual report on the 2018 working year.
Although ESO was already founded in 1975, now that legal entity has recently been acquired, this annual report gives us an opportunity to present to you an insight into the activities with which our skippers’ organisation is involved, naturally with the focus on Europe, the CCNR and other supra-national bodies.
With some sense of pride, I can state without a shadow of a doubt that with modest means, but with an international group of enthusiastic employees, we uphold the interests of inland shipping. In particular we attend to the interests of the independent entrepreneurs / skippers, almost in all its facets.
This is by no means an easy task and, as you can see in this report, a solid internal organisation has been set up.
The external structure has also been put on the European map since the end of 2017 with the establishment of the joint IWT platform (Inland Waterway Transport). In a joint composition with the European Barge Union (EBU), we focus with this platform on the enormous challenges facing the inland shipping sector in Europe.
I would like to take this opportunity to honor our former Secretary-General, Hester Duursema – who left us in 2018- for the groundbreaking work she has achieved in her relatively short stay with ESO!
I sincerely wish to thank all employees in front of and behind the scenes of ESO from the bottom of my heart for their disinterested, but very professional attitude and infectious workforce. Since 2012 I am allowed to be part of this excellent team.
PANTA RHEI… .. everything flows…. everything is moving …
Yours sincerely, 
Christiaan VanLancker, president.