EuroCham is making an important change to the Affiliation Agreement with our nine national Business Associations (BAs). This will only impact a small number of our members, but we wanted to announce the changes and how they will affect their upcoming EuroCham Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Why is EuroCham updating the Affiliation Agreement?
EuroCham was founded in 1998 with just 60 members and a handful of BAs. Today, we have more than one thousand members. Over the last two decades, as our chamber has grown, so has the number of BAs.
However, since these BAs were established at different times, the rules governing their relationship with EuroCham contained some differences.
Therefore, following a consultation process EuroCham and our BAs have – together – decided to standardize the Affiliation Agreement so that the terms and conditions are the same for everyone.
How will this change affect our members?
Most of our members will see no change at all. Only the small number of companies who currently have multiple memberships with two or more chambers will be impacted.
Under the old Affiliation Agreement, companies who joined two or more chambers would have two or more votes at the EuroCham AGM. For example, an enterprise which was a member of NordCham, DBAV, and CEEC would have been entitled to three votes.
Under our new Affiliation Agreement, this will change. We are moving to a ‘one member, one vote’ system. Companies can still join two or more chambers. However, they will no longer have two or more votes at the EuroCham AGM.
From now on, our members will all have the same voice when electing our Executive Committee and choosing the future direction of our chamber.
It’s important to note that this does not change or affect companies’ rights or benefits with their BAs.
What do I need to do now?
Most members don’t need to do anything. Only companies with multiple memberships will be affected. They will be contacted by EuroCham soon to make the necessary arrangements. In particular, we will ask them to choose which chamber will be their main – or “mother” – chamber for the purposes of voting in EuroCham elections.
