Part of the Together and Stronger family

TAS EuropeCommunity leaders

For those who carry their communities.

Hometown associations, cultural and faith groups, student and professional societies: you were here long before us. TAS Europe stands behind you, not in front of you. Associations join at no cost for their first 90 days.

Register an associationMutual Aid Compact
Four professionals in business dress talking in a bright office lounge
The people who hold a community together

Who this is for

Every kind of association that holds a community together.

Of any size, in any European country, and among Europeans abroad.

  • Hometown and village associations

    Families from one town, region or island who look after one another abroad.

  • Cultural associations

    Language, music and festivals; the weekend school; the hall where everything happens.

  • Faith communities

    Churches, mosques, temples, gurdwaras and synagogues, and their welfare committees.

  • Student and alumni societies

    International students and graduates in Europe’s university cities.

  • Professional associations

    Nurses, doctors, engineers, drivers, traders: people who share a profession and a country of origin.

  • Women’s and youth groups

    The groups that hold a community together between one generation and the next.

  • Sports clubs

    The Sunday football team that is also a community.

  • European clubs abroad

    Associations of Europeans who live in the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Gulf and Oceania.

What you receive, what you keep

Everything is added. Nothing is taken away.

Receives

What your association receives

  • A place in the European network

    Your association joins at no cost for its first 90 days, alongside associations in more than forty countries.

  • The benefits, for all of your members

    Every programme the family negotiates, in all twelve areas, is open to them.

  • Visibility

    Members who arrive in your city find your association through the network.

  • A voice

    You are heard on what the membership negotiates: the routes, the seasons, the documents that matter to your community.

  • The Mutual Aid Compact

    When a member dies far from home, the associations of the network stand with yours.

Keeps

What your association keeps

  • Its name

    Your association is not renamed, merged or absorbed. It joins as itself.

  • Its leadership

    Your members choose their own officers, as they always have.

  • Its money

    Your funds, your accounts and every decision about them remain yours.

  • Its independence

    You speak for your community in your own voice. TAS Europe stands behind you, not in front of you.

  • Its own ways

    Your statutes, your meetings, your traditions and your language are your own.

Mutual Aid Compact

The Mutual Aid Compact.

Every community knows the call that comes at night. A member has died, the family is far from home, and by morning someone is going from door to door with a list. Associations have carried this duty for generations, each one alone. The Compact is the agreement by which the associations of the network carry it together.

What the Compact is

  • Solidarity between associations. When a member of one dies far from home, or a family is struck by an emergency, the others stand with it.
  • Practical help. Guidance through the formalities of two countries, from people who have done this before.
  • A shared commitment that no family faces repatriation or burial alone.

What it is not

  • It is not insurance, and it does not replace the funeral or life cover a household holds through a licensed provider.
  • It creates no right to payment, for any member or any association.
  • It takes nothing over. Your association’s own fund, and every decision about it, stay in your hands.

Far from home

When a member dies far from home.

A calm order of things, for the person in the community who takes the first call. Procedures differ from country to country; these six steps hold almost everywhere in Europe.

The wing of an aircraft above the clouds
The journey home

  1. The first hours

    If the death happens at home, call the emergency number or the family doctor: a doctor must certify the death before anything else can happen. In a hospital or a care home, the staff do this. Agree with the family who is to be the one contact for every decision.

  2. Register the death

    A death is registered with the civil registry or town hall of the place where it happened; a funeral director usually does this with the family. Ask for several copies of the death certificate, and ask whether a multilingual version is available.

  3. Tell the consulate

    Inform the consulate of the person’s country of nationality. It explains what that country requires for the return of remains or ashes, and it can record the death at home. A consulate does not normally pay the costs.

  4. Return home, or rest here

    Look first for the person’s own wishes, and for any funeral cover, life cover, employer or trade-union benefit that may apply. Repatriation and burial where the family lives are both dignified choices; faith, family and cost all count.

  5. A funeral director who knows the route

    Choose a funeral director with experience of international repatriation, or of your community’s rites. They prepare the documents both countries ask for and arrange the transport or the ceremony. Ask for a written quotation before you agree.

  6. The community’s part

    Name one coordinator. If the community gathers money, keep a written account and share it with the family. Stay with the family in the weeks that follow: the paperwork for pensions, accounts and tenancies continues long after the funeral, and so does grief.

General information, not legal advice. The funeral director, the civil registry and the consulate give the rules that apply in each case.

Write to us: the network stands with you

How to join

Three steps.

  1. Register your association

    Complete the form below. It takes two minutes and asks only for a contact person and your association’s name and city.

  2. We write back to you

    We reply to every association, in your language, and confirm its place in the European network.

  3. Your members join

    Each member joins in their own name, with the first 90 days free, and names your association. Their card is linked to it.

Registration

Register your association.

Associations join at no cost for their first 90 days. We write back to every one.

Questions

Questions from leaders.

Does joining cost our association anything?

Associations join at no cost for their first 90 days, and each of their members also receives their first 90 days of membership free.

Do we give up any independence?

None. Your association keeps its name, its leadership, its money, its statutes and its voice. It joins the network as itself.

We are a small association. May we join?

Yes. Associations of any size join in the same way and on the same terms: a village association of thirty families sits in the network beside a federation.

Is the Mutual Aid Compact insurance?

No. The Compact is solidarity between associations. It is not insurance, it does not replace insurance, and it creates no right to payment for any member or any association.

What do our members have to do?

Each member joins in their own name on the membership form and names your association in the message box. Membership is free for the first 90 days; children under 18 are included on a parent’s membership.

We already belong to a federation. Does that change anything?

No. Federations and umbrella bodies join the network too, and an association that belongs to one may also join in its own right.

Join us — or serve with us.

Membership is free for the first 90 days — one membership per adult, with children under 18 included on a parent’s membership. And if you wish to give your time to your community, there is a place for you.

Become a member Serve with us