European Paralympic Committee (EPC) Members will gather in Riga, Latvia, on 8 March for an Extraordinary General Assembly.
An Extraordinary General Assembly was called by EPC Members following the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) General Assembly in Manama, Bahrain, on 29 September 2023.
Here the global IPC Membership voted for the partial suspension of the Russian and Belarusian National Paralympic Committees (NPCs).
According to the IPC statement released at the time: As a result of the IPC’s General Assembly’s decision, NPC Russia’s membership rights were suspended for two years (subject to reassessment at the next ordinary General Assembly) with the exception that its athletes (and related support personnel) will be eligible to participate in an individual and neutral capacity (this means no teams) in the Paralympic Games and World and Regional Championships and sanctioned competitions in the six sports for which the IPC acts as international federation. In each case, this is subject to athletes and support personnel meeting such conditions of participation set by the IPC Governing Board.
The IPC General Assembly voted for the same outcome for the Belarus NPC.
In the following weeks, enough European Members submitted motions to the EPC to trigger an Extraordinary General Assembly according to the EPC statutes.
Since then the EPC has been in open dialogue with its Membership on the issues they want to bring forward, as well as the IPC on their behalf, and according to what is possible under the jurisdiction of the EPC.
The Extraordinary General Assembly in Riga will see the EPC Membership decide formally what they want the EPC’s next steps to be, based on these discussions and developments since the IPC General Assembly.
A press conference will be held following the Extraordinary General Assembly on Friday. For more information contact lucy.dominy@europaralympic.org.