Agora Catania is starting in a few days and as always, the AEGEEan will try to help you better understand the Proposals which will be discussed during the Prytania. These following ones are all proposed by the Comitè Directeur. 

EPM topic selection at Spring Agora

Proposed by Loes Rutten on behalf of the CD. This proposal aims at anticipating the selection of the topic for EPM to Spring Agora, in order to have a better correspondence of the timeframe with the preparatory work of the hosting local. Moreover, the announcement of hosting local of EPM would be made at the previous EPM, so that this factor could be taken into consideration for the topic selection. The proposed emendments to the Working Formats of Agora and EPM replace the expression “Autumn Agora” with the expression “Spring Agora” (in the Agora WF) and “the preceding Spring Agora” (in the EPM WF).

On resignation of members from elected European Bodies

Proposed by Fabrizio Bellicano on behalf of the CD. This proposal’s intention is to limit the possibility for members to apply for an elective position before they finish their duties, in case they where already elected for a different elective position at a previous Agora. The proposed changes to the WF of the Agora add that members who hold an Agora-elected position cannot run for a different elective position at the following Agora, except when the end of the previous term and the beginning of the following one do not collide. The same rationale would apply to resignations, unless announced three months in advance before Agora.

Vote of Confidence and Comité Directeur

Proposed by María Ballesteros Melero on behalf of the CD. This proposal is based on the fact that a vote of confidence against the CD is automatic in case the interim Action Agenda fulfillment is not approved by Agora, but the CD doesn’t -and shouldn’t- have control over the Action Agenda fulfillment. It is proposed to link the vote of confidence to the lack of approval by Agora for binding documents for CD such as their Activity Plan or interim Activity Report. This last provision would be added to article 21, (1) of the Statutes of AEGEE-Europe, while at article 3, (3) of the Strategic Plan and Action Agenda, point 5 (“Disapproval of the interim evaluation leads to a vote of confidence for the Comité Directeur”) would be removed.

You can find all the proposals here.

Written by Federica Soro, AEGEE-Cagliari

As the Agora Asturias 2015 is approaching at a high speed, our ‘Proposals for Dummies’ series is still ongoing! Today we are taking a look at three proposals which mainly concern Statutory Meetings, namely Agorae, European Planning Meetings and Network Meetings, and which aim at introducing some changes to the Antenna Criteria and the Working Format of the Agora.

The first one of the proposals that we will analyse today, Proxy voting for locals, has been proposed by Léa Charlet from AEGEE-Paris, Olga Rivero from AEGEE-Oviedo and Ruben Navarro from AEGEE-Tarragona. It addresses a problem that some of our locals are facing since some of them don’t the money, time and resources to send their delegates to the Agorae. It means that these locals cannot participate in the decisions taken at the Agora, as they are unable to cast their votes. The proposal suggests that locals who cannot attend the Agorae can delegate their votes to another antenna, who will cast it on their behalf.

The proposers argue that smaller locals often face disadvantages, as they usually have lesser chances to send delegates to Agorae. Moreover, they argue that often, the city where an Agora takes place “is also decisive for a candidate to be elected or a proposal to be approved, just because the attendance from the nearby antennae is bigger” than others.

However, this doesn’t mean that antennae who delegate their votes to others will fulfil the antenna criterion of being present at Statutory events. It will only mean that some other antenna will vote on their behalf, so they will not be in any way present in Agorae. According to the initial proposal, antennae who would like to delegate their votes would have to inform the Juridical Commission two weeks in advance, and approve their decision of delegating the vote in their own local Agora. Find the proposal here.

The second one of the proposals we will take a look at today concerns the attendance to statutory meetings, too. It aims at Changing Criteria for Representative Attendance during Meetings, referring to Agorae, European Planning Meetings (EPM) and Network Meetings (NWMs). Mario Galea (AEGEE-Valletta), on behalf of the Network Commission, proposes to change the current criterion of attendance to plenaries (currently stated as “full attendance”) and set a minimum percentage of plenary attendance instead (80% of them), and as many prytania per slot as it has representatives – so, if a local sends only two delegates, this local should send these two delegates in two prytania slots.

Concerning Network Meetings, Mario argues that the current criterion implies that locals have to send a participant at a Network Meeting, but this presence is not usually counted – meaning that participants can be free of skipping the sessions or simply visiting the city. The proposal aims to avoid this by setting a minimum percentage of the sessions to be attended in order to make this criterion fulfilled. The full proposal can be found here.

Our last daily proposal, Providing Room for Deliberation on Motions, is proposed by Gijs van Amerongen and Maarten de Groot, from AEGEE-Amsterdam. Currently, there is enough space for deliberation before voting candidatures and proposals. However, this doesn’t happen when it comes to motions, which are proposed during the Agora itself and often voted on within the same plenary session, with not enough space for discussion.

As the proposers from AEGEE-Amsterdam suggest, sometimes delegates do not have the time to deliberate and to discuss before making a decision. Because of that, they propose a minimum of three minutes during the plenary session in order to provide the delegates with some time for deliberation among one another and the members from their local. The full proposal can be found here.

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona