CESCI’s annual General Assembly

CESCI held this year’s annual General Assembly on 25 May at the French Institute in Budapest, this time with the members in person again following the online meetings during the pandemic.  A high number of the members or their representatives have participated in the General Assembly, and each voting has been successful.

The most important agenda point of the General Assembly was the adoption of the 2021 report and the public benefit activity report. Although the pandemic situation has significantly hindered the implementation of cross-border activities, the work organisation has still been able to carry out extensive work in the past year and has also been able to maintain a balance in the budget.

The first part of agenda item no. 2 was an unusual proposal: the General Assembly was compelled to adopt a proposal on the exclusion of several members (5 private entities, 2 legal entities) due to legislation changes, overdue membership fees, and regular absence. The proposal, which was unanimously approved by the present members, was supported by the Supervisory Board in the interest of the General Assembly’s ability to function. As no concern was raised at the Board meeting, no legal impediment occurred against the exclusions.

A further agenda point contained the recognition of the resignation of some members, and the General Assembly approved the admission of one Romanian and one Czech private person to the association.

In agenda item no. 3, the resignation of President dr. Tamás Tóth was the first point to negotiate, who, due to other activities, was not able to undertake to further participate in the increased domestic and international networking, thus the President had no choice but to step down after his 10 years of work. In his stead, former Vice President dr. Zsuzsanna Fejes became the new president of the association, while the General Assembly elected dr. Tamás Tóth to the now vacant Vice President position. The outgoing president’s work was advocated and thanked by the Secretary General on behalf of the association. The Board has also increased by two new members: dr. Dana-Bianca Mitrică, department head to the Institute of Geography at the Romanian Academy, and dr. Hynek Böhm, professor at the Technical University of Liberec and at the University of Opole.

In agenda item no. 4, Director Mátyás Jaschitz presented the working plan of 2022 and its main aspects (border studies, cross border planning and programming, institution building, policy support, knowledge sharing, organisation development, social responsibility). The leadership proposed a continuous and realistic budget this year as well for the implementation of the working plan.

In agenda item “Other”, the association’s gender equality plan was adopted first, as this plan is a requirement in the Horizon Europe programme. Following this, the General Assembly approved the transposition of certain regulation modifications (Acquisition Regulation, Inventory and Scrapping Regulation, Money Management Regulation) which are related to the amendments to the Statutes adopted by the General Assembly meeting as of 29 November 2021.