The meeting of 14-16 January 2003 in Jerusalem, attended by 25 bishops and representatives of the European and North American episcopates, as well as delegates of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE) and of the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (COMECE), represents the main event planned as part of the Coordination of the Episcopal Conferences in support of the Holy Land. This body was set up in 1997, but it was not till October 1998, during a meeting in Jerusalem, that it began to operate, even if only in an informal way. It did so through a coordination that had among its founding members the Episcopal Conferences of Canada, England and Wales, France, Germany, USA and the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Latin America and Europe (CCEE). Italy joined this liaison group in 2002 together with COMECE, the CCEE and Spain on the occasion of its last meeting in Jerusalem in January 2003.
