European Paralympic Committee

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EPC Executive Committee meets in London

The Executive Committee of the European Paralympic Committee held its first ordinary meeting of the year on the 19th and 20th of March in London. Only two members of the committee, Karl Quade and Pal Szekeres, were unable to attend.

The meeting was hosted by the British Paralympic Association (BPA). BPA Chairman Mike Brace, Vice-Chairman Ann Cutcliffe and Chief Executive Philip Lane were all in attendance to support the Executive and exchange experiences and opinions.

The committee dealt with a number of important issues during the very busy two-day meeting, including the following:

1 EPC General Assembly (Dubrovnik, Croatia, 25th June 2005)

The deadline to return registration forms for the assembly was the 15th of March. The minimum required to ensure a quorum (17 members attending) had been met easily. No constitutional motions had been received from the membership, and the second package of documents for the assembly would go out by E-mail and post immediately after the meeting. This package includes a mandate form and forms to submit motions to the GA and nominate candidates to the EPC EC. Members will have until Saturday the 7th of May to return these forms to the Secretary General. The papers would also be posted on the EPC web site (www.europaralympic.org). If any member does not receive the documents either by E-mail or by post, or experiences problems when returning the forms, please contact epc.sg@once.es.

2 EPC Conference (Dubrovnik, Croatia, 24th June 2005)

In total, thirteen members have completed and returned the questionaire sent to all members on the 25th of January. Enrique Sánchez-Guijo shall collate the results and prepare a report for the “EPC Membership Services” conference sessions on the morning of the 24th of June.

The afternoon sessions will focus on Women in Paralympic Sport and shall be led by Ann Cody, IPC Commission for Women in Sport Chairperson.

3 EPC’s new status within IPC

EPC is now a full member of IPC as a result of the approval of the new IPC constitution. The committee discussed the new situation and adopted the following agreements to bring EPC into line with this and ensure we make full use of the new rights we enjoy as an IPC member:

  1. Several constitutional motions to be put to the EPC GA by the Executive Committee were approved. These amend EPC’s constitution to bring it into line with IPC’s new structure and terminology.
  2. The assembly will be asked to commission the incoming Executive Committee to decide upon EPC representation at IPC assemblies and on the IPC Council of Regions.
  3. EPC motions to the IPC GA in Beijing in November shall be taken from the floor during the EPC assembly. All approved motions will be submitted to the IPC GA by EPC.
  4. EPC nominations to the IPC Governing Board shall be taken from the floor during the EPC assembly. All approved nominations will be submitted to IPC by EPC.

Notwithstanding these agreements, any suggestion or proposal concerning the procedures for nominating candidates and putting motions to IPC in the future will be most welcome.

With the new IPC structure gradually falling into place, the Executive Committee feels it is vital IPC and its regions enter into a dialogue concerning the future relationship between the regions and the worldwide body.

4 Athletes’ Representative

Cristian Sainz, the current Athletes’ Representative, suggested a number of ways in which the rep could be chosen in the future. Following a discussion, a motion from the Executive will be submitted to the General Assembly for approval. This motion will call for a rep who complies with the following two criteria to be nominated by the IPC Athletes’ Council, preferably from among its European members:

  1. Has participated in the summer or winter Paralympic Games in the past eight years.
  2. Comes from an EPC member country.

The nomination will then be ratified by the EPC Executive. As above, any suggestion or proposal concerning the way in which EPC’s Athletes’ Representative is chosen shall be most welcome.

5 Relations with the European Union

Bob Price, Enrique Sánchez-Guijo and Jürg Weber reported to the committee on a meeting held with the newly-appointed head of the Sports Unit in the European Commission, Mrs. Marianne Hildebrand, on the 14th of March.

While in Brussels for this meeting they had also met with the Director of the German Sports Office. The executive welcomed this and agreed the relationship with the office is beneficial to EPC. It was agreed Enrique Sánchez-Guijo, in charge of EU affairs in the Executive, should begin discussions on a possible service agreement with the GSO.

6 Finances

The audited accounts for the year 2004 and the draft budget for 2005, submitted by Jürg Weber, were approved. These will be put to the GA. The Treasurer informed the Executive that some countries were not in good standing with EPC and that, if they do not pay their outstanding membership fees, they will not be entitled to attend our GA this year.

7 Development

EPC is involved in three applications for IPC Development Grants, and hopes to receive feedback from IPC on these in the near future:

  1. a A joint project with the IPC Commission for Women in Sport to organise a European workshop.
  2. b A joint project with the Icelandic NPC to organise a conference of small European countries.
  3. c A joint project with the International Tennis Federation to promote Wheelchair Tennis in Eastern Europe.