The European Union of Yoga (EUY) is an international non-profit organisation which co-ordinates a network of yoga teachers, training schools and yoga federations. It was founded in 1971, and has since 1973 held an annual congress at Zinal, Switzerland where yoga teachers and practitioners can meet in a multi-lingual, cross-cultural environment and hear from invited Indian yoga teachers.

History

The European Union of Yoga (EUY) was founded in 1971 by the entrepreneur Gérard Blitz and the yoga teacher and author André Van Lysebeth, with representatives of National Federations who met in Switzerland to create the European Union of Yoga Federations (UEFNY), which became the EUY in 1975.^[2][3] In 1973, the first UEFNY Congress was held at Blitz's Club Mediterranee in Zinal, Switzerland, at the suggestion of Claude Peltier.^[4][5] The Yoga teacher training program has a minimum duration of 4 years and a minimum 500 hours of tuition. This must include tutorials with course tutor(s), seminars, and extra-mural courses approved by the Training School.^[5]

The multilingual Zinal Congress, attended by hundreds of yoga teachers and practitioners, is held annually.^[6][7][8] It seeks to network across cultures with invited Indian teachers such as T. K. V. Desikachar, who came to influence the British Wheel of Yoga through the Congress.^[4]

Analysis

The Austrian yoga scholar Karl Baier describes the EUY as an international yoga association representing a secularised variant of the "modern denominational yoga" defined by Elizabeth De Michelis, a category he finds too narrow to be workable. The EUY in his view is not a neo-Hindu faith community, but it does draw on traditional yoga literature from India; postural yoga and meditation are practised, while devotional practices are largely absent.^[9]

Member organisations

The EUY's member organisations are:^[5]