RULES OF PROCEDURE
In accordance with its Statutes, the headquarters of the FEDE – Fédération Européenne Des Ecoles-Federation for European Education, must be located in Switzerland, and the various provisions governing the FEDE follow Swiss law. Consequently, the FEDE’s Executive Council must include at least one member who is a national or resident of the Swiss Confederation.
In conformity with its Statutes, the FEDE aims to favour the sharing of programmes and experience, to encourage meetings between the directors of educational institutions, teachers and young people from different countries, to organise competitions, to offer qualifications, to organise examinations (with the requirement, in all cases, to include tests focusing on European topics, languages, etc.); in short, through all its activities, to build a general climate that promotes the development of a European spirit and European values while simultaneously upholding quality in the pursuit of these goals.
At the same time, the FEDE must strive for close relations with European institutions, particularly the European Union and the Council of Europe, so as to benefit from the contributions of these institutions to the field of education and, in turn, to have these institutions benefit from the experience of FEDE members.
During the period in which their application is being processed, candidates for membership may not claim to have the status of ‘FEDE member’, using those or equivalent terms, in their advertising, communications, relations with other FEDE members, etc., since their membership has not yet been confirmed.
They may not request any responsibility whatsoever, be it relating to the organisation of competitions or examinations, the chairing of a commission, or any other activity implying a form of power. Non-compliance with these provisions will lead to serious sanctions, including possible definitive refusal to grant the perpetrator admission to the FEDE.
Full members, who may sit on the Committee, Executive Council or commissions, must behave ethically, in keeping with the FEDE spirit. Where, on the contrary, they do not respect basic rules of professional ethics and collegiality, they risk serious sanctions, including possible expulsion from the FEDE, whose image must not be damaged by thoughtless behaviour.
The same rules apply to honorary, qualified, observer and observer-full members.
Honorary and qualified members automatically have the right to attend the General Assembly. Honorary members and qualified members may be invited to attend Committee meetings. However, their opinion is only advisory in nature: they may be called upon to act as advisors to the FEDE. Only a former FEDE Chairperson who has been granted the status of Honorary Chairperson on the grounds of his or her experience and previous exceptional services, may participate in votes, including, for example, the General Assembly elections held every four years, or votes at Committee meetings he or she has been invited to attend. The Chairperson or the Executive Council may invite qualified persons to attend Committee meetings.
Members of associations, trade unions and other organisations, where they belong to the FEDE, may send their chairperson, or another representative, to speak on their behalf at the General Assembly.
Given that the FEDE is European in essence, only educational institutions headquartered in a Council of Europe member country may be granted the status of full member of the FEDE.
This provision therefore excludes from full membership any educational institution depending on another geographical area, with the exception of overseas countries and territories that are dependent on a Council of Europe member state. Educational institutions depending on another geographical area may apply to become observer members.
Observer members can elect, from among themselves, observer-full members, who hold the same rights as full members.
In order to restrict the influence of non-Council of Europe member countries within a federation that is European, the following rules of distribution apply:
1. An observer-full member, up-to-date with his or her membership-fee payments at the time of the vote, may be elected by observer members, who must also be up-to-date with their membership-fee payments at the time of the vote, provided that there is a minimum of 20 observer-member educational institutions within a given country, and that all of them are up-to-date with their membership-fee payments at the time of the vote; where there are fewer than 20 members in a given country, non-Council of Europe countries are ‘grouped together’ by ‘geographical area’, with a candidate designated to represent that area.
2. A maximum of eight observer-full members may be elected per country or group of countries.
3. Only one observer-full member per country or group of countries may be elected to the Committee.
4. This observer-full member is elected during the General Assembly by the countries or group of countries to which the candidate belongs.
5. The observer-full members sitting on the Committee may not amount to more than 30% of the total number of Committee members.
6. Within the Executive Council, the roles of Chairperson, Secretary General and Treasurer must be filled by members belonging to Council of Europe countries.
The membership and admission procedure is as follows:
1. All applications are sent to the Chairperson’s office.
2. A swift answer (within 8 to 10 days) is sent to applicants, along with:
⬪ a form to fill out
⬪ information on the FEDE (brochures)
⬪ the Statutes and Rules of Procedure in one of the FEDE’s official languages (English or French)
⬪ information on the application fee, initial membership fee and annual membership fee
⬪ a description of the admission procedure
3. The candidate educational institution must fill out the form, return it, along with any other relevant documents, to the Chairperson’s office, and pay the application fee and initial membership fee to the Treasurer. The candidate educational institution will receive confirmation that the application has been received. The application is then examined by the Committee, which is provided with all the necessary information. If the Committee considers it appropriate, it will designate a FEDE member, reputed for his/her competence and impartiality, to visit the institution in person and give his/her opinion. However, it is the Committee that takes the final decision, which will be one of the following: ‘admission granted’, ‘admission refused’, ‘request for further information’, or ‘admission granted subject to a probationary period’. In order to take effect, the decision must be adopted by a two-thirds majority of Committee members present and voting.
4. If the Committee grants admission, the candidate institution receives notice of membership.
5. A list of new educational institutions is communicated to all FEDE members during the annual General Assembly.
6. An institution that has requested membership may not enroll candidates in FEDE examinations until it has been definitively admitted to the FEDE by the Committee. The same principle applies to new members wishing to stand for election for posts on the Committee or Executive Council. New members may only stand for election following two full years of membership.
7. The initial membership fee is decided by the Executive Council.
8. It is recalled, for the sake of clarity, that candidate institutions may not include any mention of the FEDE in their advertising or make claim to membership of the FEDE. Failure to comply with this requirement will lead to serious sanctions, including the possible definitive non-admission of the institution concerned.
9. Each new member must attend one of the two General Assemblies that follow its admission by the Committee and present its activities to the Assembly. Failure to do so authorises the Executive Council to expel the new member in conformity with Article 10 of the Statutes.
The membership certificate,’ which provides proof of an institution’s membership of the FEDE, is only provided if the institution has been officially admitted to the FEDE and is up to date with its membership payments.
Where sanctions are applied to it, including its possible striking off from the FEDE’s list of members, for reasons other than non-payment of membership fees, a member institution may appeal the decision to apply sanctions to it by sending a request to the Chairperson or Executive Council. The Committee will then request that the Bureau examine the appeal in accordance with Article 26 of the Statutes and report back to the Committee.
The Committee will take the final decision with a required 2/3 majority of votes. It may request that an expert or ad hoc commission produce a report before it takes its decision.
With respect to elections to positions of responsibility (Chairperson, Executive Council, Committee, Auditor’s Office), only candidacies sent to the FEDE’s General Secretariat at least one month prior to the General Assembly (using the postmark as proof of date) will be considered valid.
This means that spontaneous candidacies submitted a few days prior to, or during, the General Assembly, are not allowed. Any candidacies sent after the deadlines will be rejected, and no exceptions will be accorded. Moreover, no candidate may stand simultaneously for more than one position where that position is the role of Chairperson or a position on the Executive Council or the Committee. In the interests of clarity, it should be noted that a member elected to sit on the Executive Council is also automatically a member of the Committee.
Consequently, candidates for the elections held every four years at the ordinary General Assembly (or, in exceptional cases, at an extraordinary General Assembly with early elections) must decide by the deadline whether they wish to stand for a specific position on the Executive Council or else stand for election to the Committee. No double candidacies will be accepted. Where this rule is not respected, the candidacies in question will simply be rejected.
In order to avoid unserious, frivolous or rushed candidacies to the Committee, Executive Council and, in particular, the Chairpersonship, all candidates must have been FEDE members for a full two years and be completely up-to-date with all payments of any kind owed to the FEDE.
Decisions put to the vote are taken either ‘by show of hands’ or ‘by secret ballot’. Under these Rules, votes will take place ‘by secret ballot’ only if half +1 (plus one) of the members present or represented request it.
There are two types of vote:
¨ Votes concerning new provisions of a greater or lesser degree of importance, be they structural in nature or relating to the daily life and functioning of the FEDE: A vote ‘by show of hands’ is recommended, apart from in exceptional cases, such as where the issue at hand is particularly serious, or, in conformity with these Rules, where there is an explicit request for a vote by ‘secret ballot’ by more than half +1 (plus one) of the members present or represented.
¨ Votes during various types of election: Where no clear or specific rule is provided in the Statutes, it is prudent to apply the following practice:
– If only one candidate stands for election for a position of responsibility, the vote should take place, as a rule, by show of hands, unless the candidate him/herself, requests, for personal reasons, that the vote take place ‘by secret ballot’;
– If two or more candidates are standing for election to a position of responsibility, voting must take place ‘by secret ballot’.
Secretaries from educational institutions from at least three different countries, and who are not candidates, are to be named from among the youngest participants at the assembly. They are to organise the votes, count the ballot papers and communicate the results to the Chairperson, who will officially announce them.
It is specified that the votes must be counted in the meeting room.
Electronic or postal votes are, as a rule, the exception and only allowed when two conditions are met: the vote concerns a serious matter and the vote is urgent. Remote voting is delicate for a number of reasons. The various difficulties inherent to this form of vote notwithstanding, it is necessary to ensure that voting is anonymous.
With respect to the representation of different nationalities on the Committee, it is important that the fairest possible balance be achieved.
Consequently, it is strongly recommended that each country or, failing that, each ‘group of countries’ per geographical area, be represented by one member.
Where no candidate comes forward, the Chairperson and the Executive Council can, via the General Assembly, co-opt a provisional member who, of course, must give up his/her post when an elected successor is appointed.
Additionally, in order to restrict the influence of one country over another, the following rules apply:
1 Where there are five or more member institutions of a given nationality, that nationality must be represented; if there are fewer than five, countries should form groups by ‘geographical area’ or ‘linguistic area’ and designate a candidate to represent them. This means that there is necessarily a representative on the Committee for up to 10 members in a given geographical area.
2 Each additional set of 10 member institutions requires a further representative, up to a maximum of 50 institutions. Where there are more than 50 institutions, there is to be an additional representative for each additional set of 50 institutions:
3a Full members
No country may be represented by more than half of the members of the Committee.
Number of institutions Number of representatives
From 5 to 10 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
11 or more ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
21 or more ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
31 or more ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
41 or more ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
51 or more ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
101 or more ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
3b Observer-full members
Number of representatives: 1 per country or group of countries
3c Given the importance of the Committee for the functioning of the FEDE and the small number of annual meetings (3 to 4), it should be clearly stated that a Committee member who is absent on more than two consecutive occasions, without providing a serious reason for absence, will be removed from the Committee after first receiving a formal request to attend the next Committee meeting, sent by registered mail with confirmation of delivery at least 15 days prior to the upcoming Committee meeting, or by email with confirmation of delivery. If no reply is received, the Chairperson will send him/her a letter confirming his/her removal from the Committee. The removed member is replaced by co-option of a new representative proposed by the Chairperson from among the FEDE’s members; the proposal must be supported by a 2/3 majority vote of Executive Council members present or represented.
In the same vein, in order to ensure the widest possible representation of nationalities within the Executive Council, no country may be represented by more than half of Council members.
Moreover, the FEDE’s General Manager, appointed by the Chairperson and working under his/her authority, is to participate at Executive Council meetings without the right to vote. The General Manager manages the Chairperson’s office; he or she is in charge of the FEDE’s daily business and is in regular contact with the members of the Executive Council and Committee. He or she therefore plays an essential role in the sound functioning of the FEDE.
Finally, it is advisable, though not required, that Executive Council meetings, which, for reasons of convenience, may be extended to include Committee members, take place in different places from one meeting to the next, with due regard to the constraints of the provisional budget.
The costs of Committee members are covered as follows:
Accommodation: one night in a hotel + breakfast, on a day immediately following or preceding a Committee meeting; this is extended to a maximum of two nights + two breakfasts for international members that cannot secure transportation on the morning or evening of the Committee meeting.
Travel: in economy class at a price quoted at least six weeks before the Committee meeting
Meals: lunch on the day of the Committee meeting
Delegates with specific responsibilities, experts and other appropriate persons may be invited by the Chairperson to attend specific Executive Council meetings without the right to vote.
Minutes are to be taken during the meetings of the commissions, which elect their own chairperson and secretary-rapporteur. The minutes, along with an annual report, detailing the commission’s activities and
decisions, must be provided to the Secretary General at least two months ahead of the General Assembly. The commissions operate under paragraphs a, b, c, d and e of Article 18 of the Statutes.
The number and type of commissions is not fixed; they are formed in line with the needs expressed by FEDE members and have the role of reflecting on the issue at hand and submitting conclusions.
The working budget of the commissions is suggested by the Treasurer, who reports on this point to the Committee.
The FEDE’s funds, from various sources, must be invested in the best interests of the Association, but they may also be used to meet additional expenses and commitments.
The role of the auditor/auditors is, at the end of each financial year, to check the arithmetic accuracy of the FEDE’s financial results, to ensure appropriate use of any surpluses resulting from sound management, and to inform the Chairperson and Executive Council of any anomalies he/she/they have identified.
With respect to membership fees, the Treasurer is to demonstrate vigilance. At least three reminders should be sent to members who have not paid their fees on time: as a rule, in February, March and April of each year. Payment of charges and interest may be requested.
Where there is no reply, and all the more so in the case of a refusal to pay over two consecutive years or cumulatively over a period of two years, it must be considered that the educational institution (or a legal person) wishes to withdraw from the FEDE and that it should therefore be expelled, provided that the Executive Council first be consulted and that it make one final payment request to the defaulting institution.
ARTICLE 20 – 1 An institution that has had to leave the FEDE, for whatever reason, and that wishes to join the FEDE again, must again pay the initial membership fee at the current rate and an application fee. The return of the institution must be approved by the Committee.
A member that has left the FEDE, for whatever reason, within fewer than five years of its request to return, is not required to pay the initial membership fee provided that it pays the annual membership fees due in all previous years. It must, however, pay the application fee.
A member that has left the FEDE, for whatever reason, within fewer than three years of its request to return, is not required to pay the initial membership fee provided that it pays the annual membership fees due in all previous years. It is not required to pay the application fee.
Any former member wishing to join the FEDE again, for whatever reason, must be up to date with all the payments, regardless of payment category, that it owes to the FEDE.
ARTICLE 20 – 2 It is further specified that an educational institution belonging to a group (even if it operates in a different town) must, like all other members, pay the annual membership fee but, on the other hand, does not have to pay the initial membership fee given that there is a close tie between the institution in question and the group that is already a member of the FEDE. Indeed, in this case, there are rules of operation common to the two organisations. The same goes for cases where several educational institutions belong to a single network.
ARTICLE 20 – 3 Where, on the contrary, an educational institution is a franchisee or is part of a network but is administratively and financially independent of the central institution and has its own budgetary, organisational and educational methods, that is, where there is no relationship of subordination in place, the above rule does not apply. The institution in question must pay the application fee, initial membership fee and annual membership fees on the same basis as an independent institution.
This provision may not be applied retroactively.
It is specified that, while FEDE members do not assume responsibility for the commitments entered into by the FEDE, they must, however, on a principle of quid pro quo and of reciprocity, strictly not undertake any personal initiative of such a nature that it might abusively commit the FEDE. Issues in this area may be referred to the Executive Council and, in cases of very grave misdemeanour, the filing of a civil – or even criminal – lawsuit for redress may be envisaged.
The FEDE must make efforts to develop its public relations. To this end it has clear means available that confer upon it its international character and its European engagement through its participatory status at the Council of Europe. The FEDE should increase its action through a quasi-systematic contribution to international events, congresses and pedagogical, cultural or professional fairs chosen for their usefulness.
It is possible that the FEDE might organise its own meetings of a European nature that will focus on its goals and achievements, with a particular emphasis on the serious work it conducts among young people through activities to favour the dissemination of languages and European culture and the promotion of European values.
A fund within the budget may be established and used to finance these internationally oriented activities.
In the same spirit, the FEDE must develop its ‘communications’ via various possible means (press releases, dinner-debates, etc.) and, above all, via its publications in two languages (French and English), without excluding the possibility that national representatives from other countries produce a translation into their own language where the need for this is felt.
FEDE communications must also be developed using digital and equivalent tools.
An extraordinary FEDE General Assembly, urgently convened in case of dissolution, is to comply with the same rules as those set out under article 13.1 of the Statutes. The only difference is that dissolution must be decided by an absolute majority and by two thirds of members present and up to date with their membership payments.
If this majority is not reached during a first Assembly, a second Assembly is convened no sooner than one month later and, in accordance with the spirit of the Statutes, a simple majority is then sufficient to decide on dissolution.
Dissolution may only be placed on the agenda of a General Assembly for serious and legitimate reasons.
Given that the aim of the Rules of Procedure is to complement or explain the Statutes, where unforeseen situations arise, before consulting the minutes of Committee meetings or referring the matter to the General Assembly, and before even consulting the Swiss Civil Code, it is reasonable to first refer to the present Rules of Procedure, as set forth in this document and duly adopted by a General Assembly.
