During 1983, Peter Nieuwendijk, Chairman of the Dutch Cartoon Association, and Bob Vincke, Chairman of the Belgian Cartoon Association,.....
During 1983, Peter Nieuwendijk, Chairman of the Dutch Cartoon Association, and
Bob Vincke, Chairman of the Belgian Cartoon Association, met on a several occasions to discuss the possibility of forming a “European Union of Cartoonists”. Both already had experience of organizing cartoon festivals (the Dutch Cartoon Festival in The Netherlands and Euro Kartoenale in Belgium).
In 1984 Peter Nieuwendijk met Les Lilley, Chairman of the Cartoonists Club of Great Britain, at a cartoon festival in Skopje. This festival was arranged by Ane Vasilevsky chairman of the Macedonian Cartoonists’ Association. Here the idea of a Federation of European Cartoonists Organisations was first suggested and shortly afterwards a draft constitution was written.
An inaugural meeting was held in the winter of 1984, when Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Macedonia and Croatia Senaid Serdarevic, (Chairman of the Croatian Cartoonists’ Association), approved the constitution and became the five founder members of FECO.
In February 1985 Bob Vincke, Les Lilley and Peter Niewendijk met at Knokke-Heist, Belgium, for their first council meeting. This was organised with the help of Eric Parez (organiser of the Knokke-Heist Intenational Cartoon Festival) and Manu De Sutter (member of the Belgian Parliament).
Peter Nieuwendijk became FECO first President-General. A secretariat was established at Knokke-Heist for the first year. Numerous meetings were held in Holland, Belgium and Great Britain. After the first few years the secretariat was transferred to The Netherlands, where it has remained under the management of the Secretary-General.
The British cartoonist and international prize-winner Roland Fiddy designed the FECO logo. Ronald Libin (Belgium) undertook the editing and production of FECONEWS, later (starting with no 16) taken over by Peter Nieuwendijk (today’s editor-in-chief) and called
FECONEWS Magazine. (still a printed magazine with more than 32 pages and a colored cover)
In 1986 FECO started successfully to distribute the FECO Presscard for members only.
In 2001 the FECO Board (under British Presidency of Roger Penwill changed the meaning of the abbreviation of the word FECO into FEderation of Cartoonists Organisations and went worldwide with members from Australia, Japan, Egypt, Argentina, Israel, Taiwan, Korea and Iran.
In 2002 Keith Spry started to produce FECONEWS Bulletin every two months (a digital magazine with news and up-to-date contest information) Andy Davey started a FECO Website. In 2003 the FECO Board changed the rules and made it possible for a person from a non-FECO-founder-country to be elected as President General.
In 2005 FECO Group Greece was accepted as FECO Member 31
Presidents General
1985-1988 PETER NIEUWENDIJK (The Netherlands)
1988-1991 RONALD LIBIN (Belgium)
1991-1994 LES LILLY (Great Britain)
1994-1998 PETER NIEUWENDIJK (The Netherlands)
1998-2001 RONALD LIBIN (Belgium)
2001-2005 ROGER PENWILL (Great Britain)
2005-2009 MARLENE POHLE (Germany
2009-2014 PETER NIEUWENDIJK (The Netherlands)
2014-2016 BERNARD BOUTON (France)
2016- PETER NIEUWENDIJK (The Netherlands)
Vice-Presidents General:
2001-2006 BOB VINCKE (Belgium)
2006-2009 IZEL ROZENTAL (Turkey)
2006-2007 ROGER PENWILL (Great Britain)
2009-2015 CARLOS BRITO (Portugal)
2009- MARLENE POHLE (ARGENTINA)
2016- BERNARD BOUTON (FRANCE)
2016- 2017 XIA DACHUAN (CHINA)
2017-2020 STEFFEN JAHSNOWSKI (GERMANY)
2020- TAMER YOUSSEF (EGYPT)
Secretary General
1992-1994 GRAHAM COOKE (Great Britain)
1994-1998 GRAHAM FOWELL (Great Britain)
1998-2009 PETER NIEUWENDIJK (The Netherlands)
2009-2014 BERNARD BOUTON (France)
2014-2016 PETER NIEUWENDIJK (The Netherlands)
2016- FELIPE GALINDO (USA)
Treasurer General
1985-2001 BOB VINCKE (Belgium)
2001-2006 GRAHAM FOWELL (Great Britain)
2006-2014 BOB VINCKE (Belgium)
2014-2015 JEAN MARIE BERTIN (FRANCE)
2016- BERNARD BOUTON (FRANCE)
Editor-in-Chief FECONEWS Magazine
1988-1995 RONALD LIBIN (Belgium)
1995- PETER NIEUWENDIJK (The Netherlands)