A new EFAy President and Bureau weas elected last week at the organisation’s 9th General Assembly (GA) in Barcelona, Catalonia.

This year’s GA was an important one, because, in addition to the election of a new President and Bureau, a number of statute changes had also been proposed. The amendments to the statutes means that the EFAy is now able to implement organisational changes that have discussed within the organisation over the last year.

One such change involved the proposal that would allow the EFAy coordinator to become the Secretary General of the organisation, in line with the way other European organisations function. After lengthy and interesting discussions the statue amendments were approved by the voting GA delegates and the new changes were brought into immediate effect.

The new President and Bureau, elected at the 2009 GA, are listed below:

President: Jezz Anbleydh (Kernow X, Cornwall)

Secretary General: Lucy Collyer

Vice President: Meilyr Hedd (Cymru X, Wales)
Vice President: Arseni Armengou (JERC, Catalonia)
Vice President: Gudrun Kofler (Sud – Tiroler Freiheit)
Vice President: Gael Briand (UDB Youth, Brittany)
Vice President: Antoni Trobat (JEN, Mallorca)

The organisational changes also mean that the new EFAy Bureau will be individual members of the Bureau in their own right and will not represent their organization on the Bureau, as was the case in previous years. Nevertheless, each Bureau member still has to be proposed by their member organization, but will now be accountable to the EFAy.

A number of resolutions (and emergency resolutions) were also passed at the GA, on the following topics:

Use of fireworks at cultural festivities in the Mediterranean (JEN, Mallorca)
Reunification of Brittany (UDBy, Brittany)
Trident renewal plans to be ditched (YSI, Scotland)
Homecoming Scotland 2009 (YSI, Scotland)
Closing of Guantanamo Bay (YSI, Scotland)
Free movement of workers across the European Community (YSI, Scotland)

Emergency resolutions:

Higher education (UDBy)
Women's right to abortion (JERC)
Tax on international transfers to be donated to developing countries (SFN)

Several organisations were also accepted by the GA as Observer/Full Members of the EFAy, as shown below:

Observer Members:

Youth Südschleswigschen (State of Denmark)
Youth Lista per Fiume (State of Croatia)
Lega Giovanile Separatista – Giovanni Indipendentisti Siciliani (State of Italy)

Full Members:

Youth Sud Tirol Freiheit (State of Italy)
Youth Hungarian Roma Party (State of Hungary)

The new Bureau for 2009 to 2011 also held their first meeting in Barcelona, following the GA, on 27th March 2009. At the meeting Lucy Collyer was formally appointed as Secretary General and Arseni Armengou was appointed as Treasurer.

EFAy Secretary General, Lucy Collyer, warmly welcomed the new Bureau saying:

“I am encouraged by your enthusiasm and motivation and hope that this continues so that we can work together to strengthen EFAy.”