Dear FIA Member,

December was an important month for our organisation and particularly for the development of our sporting championships across the world. There was also good progress in the development of our road safety projects and I believe this will be helped further through forging a closer collaboration between the mobility and sporting sides of the FIA.

During the second week of December, we hosted a series of meetings in Monaco beginning with a Global Rally Forum which brought together the promoters, teams, manufacturers and drivers from the FIA World Rally Championship, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the Dakar Rally and other cross-country rally championships. Together we discussed the challenges faced by the rallying community as a whole and the best ways to help stakeholders achieve success in the future. The meeting was very instructive and a Working Group was created to produce a plan to develop rallying on a global level. This group will be chaired by the FIA Deputy President for Sport Graham Stoker with participation from representatives from each category of stakeholders. There are many challenges facing rally worldwide so their work will be crucial.

The following day the first meeting of the F1 Commission in its new structure since the signing of the 2009 Concorde Agreement, was held. I was pleased that all members of the Commission showed a willingness to work together and with the FIA to progress the sport. A strong mandate was given to the Sporting Working Group to develop detailed proposals to improve F1 from 2010. The FIA and Formula One Management will further collaborate to ensure the communication and promotion of the championship to the media and that its worldwide fan base is improved.

On the same day, the Motor Sport Safety Development Fund met to decide on the distribution of grants for motor sport safety projects around the world. Over the next 12 months the Fund will distribute over ?5 million in grants for more than 60 safety and sustainability-related projects led by our national sporting authorities. Recipients range across all continents and all club sizes and this funding will go a long way towards raising the standards for motor sport worldwide. This process will be aided by the FIA Sport Vice Presidents, who met in Monaco to discuss ways to coordinate their work to help improve motor sport on a global level.

Another significant part of the week was the FIA World Motor Sport Council where a number of important decisions were taken that should benefit many of our championships. They included developments in Formula One such as a restructuring of the stewards' panel, the appointment of FIA F1 Ambassadors and a more detailed definition of the role of the FIA World Championship Commissioners. A number of important commissions and working groups were established. An Environment Working Group will bring together representatives from the Environmentally Sustainable Motor Sport Commission and the Alternative Energies Commission to make environmental proposals for the FIA championships.

The Manufacturers Commission, which has been dormant for some time will be revived as a high level strategic body involving board-level representation from the manufacturers. New sub-commissions involving tyre and fuel manufacturers will also be formed. The WMSC also created our first Women and Motor Sport Commission which will encourage the full participation of women in all aspects of motor sport and set in place strategies and policies that will promote the education and training of women in motor sport. Former World Rally star driver Michèle Mouton was appointed as President of this Commission.

The week finished with the FIA gala for the Champions of international motor sport on Friday night and the CIK-FIA prize-giving on Saturday. Whilst the drivers attended the event to collect their awards, champions such as Jenson Button and Sébastien Loeb participated in the Make Roads Safe campaign by signing the Decade of Action wall and posing for promotional photographs.

It is vital that all FIA Clubs maintain the momentum of this road safety campaign in the run-up to the UN General Assembly this March, where the Decade of Action plan is set to be ratified. This is why I travelled to Belarus for a post-Moscow Ministerial meeting of FIA clubs to discuss the success of the Ministerial and plan the next steps to implement the goals of the Decade of Action declaration. There will be many opportunities during the Decade of Action for Clubs to lead the way in road safety in their own countries by working with the FIA , the FIA Foundation and the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) to pinpoint where work must done.

Whilst in Belarus, I took the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) clubs, many of which are relatively new to the FIA network. I was joined by the President of Region I, Werner Kraus and we were encouraged to see how well Eastern European Clubs are working together and how they are cooperating with more developed clubs from Western Europe.

The FIA is in a unique position to utilise cross-promotion between sport and mobility. Throughout my Presidency, I will be placing particular emphasis on developing synergies between our sport and mobility members to help with safety matters, as well as economic and environmental sustainability issues.

I wish you a successful 2010, and with our leadership team, Nick Craw, Brian Gibbons and Graham Stoker, I look forward to working closely with you throughout the year.

Kind regards,

Jean Todt
FIA President