General Assembly
The General Assembly is the superior decision-making body of the EQAR Association, gathering all its members.
It convenes annually and decides on the budget, approves the accounts, elects the Executive Board and Appeals Committee, and approves the Register Committee.
25 March 2009: 2nd General Assembly, Praha
EQAR members convened for their 2nd General Assembly on 25 March 2009 in Praha, Czech Republic. The meeting was held on the day before the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) met, also in Praha, to prepare the next Bologna Process ministerial meeting, which will be held this April in Leuven and Louvain-La-Neuve.
Representatives of Slovenia, which has joined EQAR as Governmental Member right before the General Assembly, and Ireland, which had signed up for governmental membership already last summer, were warmly welcomed at their first General Assembly.
The General Assembly discussed EQAR's first annual report. The report, covering EQAR's activities in 2008 from its founding to the inclusion of the frist agencies on the register, will be published when Europe's ministers of higher education meet in April to take stock of progress in the Bologna Process.
Following the end of her mandate in the European Students' Union (ESU) last year, Anne Mikkola, who had served as Vice-President of the Executive Board since EQAR's founding, had resigned from her post to allow a new representative of ESU to take over. The General Assembly by-elected Bruno Carapinha, a member of the ESU Executive Committee.
Bruno will also take over as President of the Executive Board from 1 April 2009, following an agreement to rotate functions annually amongst the representatives of EQAR's four Founding Members. The General Assembly thanked Anne for her work and wished Bruno a successful mandate. Lesley Wilson, who has been its President since March 2008, will continue to serve on the Board as the Treasurer. Emmi Helle and Andreas Orphanides will serve as Vice-Presidents for the coming year.
25 June 2008: First EQAR General Assembly, Sarajevo
- © Daniel Wabyick
The first General Assembly took place on the 25th of June 2008 in Sarajevo, following an extraordinary meeting of the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) convened in Sarajevo to discuss the development of the European Higher Education Area after 2010.
This was the second meeting of the EQAR association members, following the Founding Assembly on 4 March 2008. Four Bologna signatory countries have joined since and were welcomed at the Sarajevo meeting: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Hungary and Norway.
The main objective of the meeting was a consultation on the Procedures for Applications. Those will be adopted by the Register Committee during the coming weeks, taking due account of the questions and comments arising from the Sarajevo meeting.
The General Assembly adopted EQAR's Mission Statement, the Appeals Procedure and the budgets for the financial years 2008 and 2009. It has by-elected Ms Geri Bonhof as deputy member of the Appeals Committee.
4 March 2008: EQAR Founding Assembly
Following the signing of EQAR's statutes by the representatives of the E4 Group, the members of the new association hold a Founding Assembly in the Royal Academy of Science and Arts (Brussels, Belgium).
Apart from the four Founding Members, two Social Partner Members (BUSINESSEUROPE, Education International) and 19 Governmental Members joined the EQAR Association on 4 March and participated in the Founding Assembly.
The Founding Assembly elected an Appeals Committee, approved the nominations to the Register Committee and endorsed the Executive Board appointed by the founders. A preliminary budget for 2008 and a membership fee scale were approved.
