The General Assembly consists of all active members and is the highest organ of authority within the ECDN. The General Assembly sets the policy guidelines and priorities of the ECDN and elects the members of the Management Committee from among its own ranks. It is also the only body that can make changes to the statutes and internal rules of the ECDN and approve the budget and account of the association.
The General Assembly meets once every year on a date set by the Management Committee. It is possible to invoke an extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly either upon the request of one third of the members of the General Assembly or whenever the interests of the Association require doing so. It is also possible to convoke a written General Assembly if circumstances demand it.
By clicking on the icon above, you can read the statutes of the ECDN. These include information about the organization’s purpose and activities as well as memberships and organizational structures
The General Assembly meetings
The General Assembly of the ECDN has one meeting each year (extraordinary meetings excluded). Here you will find an overview of each previous General Assembly meeting. This includes information about the decisions that were made, and which themes were discussed. You can also read about the next General Assembly meeting.
Due to the high workload in 2022 the General Assembly had to be postponed to March 22, 2023.
The General Assembly appreciated the hard and effective work of the MC to get the Peppi project and make it successful. As the Belgian law changed in 2019 a revision and modification of the ECDN statutes were necessary. The GA votes unanimously for the revision of the statutes. The General Assembly welcomed by voting the new ECDN members: Esdebitami and Idirittideldebitore from Italy, the Free debt Counselling Unit of the Office for Labour from Slovakia.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ECDN held its General Assembly of 2021 via videoconference on the 30th March of 2022.
The major theme of the GA was to present the Grant of the EU-Commission for which the ECDN successfully applied.
In addition, the ECDN is pleased to welcome three new members : The TEMIDA foundation from Bulgaria, LEGGE3 and Misdebito from Italy.
In 2020 The ECDN held two General Assemblies, the first was an extraordinary General Assembly held in August. Here the ECDN welcomed three new passive members.
The Ordinary General Assembly was held in December and here the members voted to change a number of articles in the ECDN’s statutes and internal rules creating a more fair membership fee system, introducing a new type of membership, and more.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Management Committee decided that both General Assemblies were to be held by written procedure. A process where the members receive a voting ballot by mail, which they fill-in and send back to the coordination office.
The 13th General Assembly of the ECDN was held on the 8th of November 2019 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The major topic of the General Assembly was changing the statutes to make sure that there were no rules, that would hinder the work of the ECDN, and the future adoption of new types of memberships. No decisions were made due to no actual proposals being presented in due time.
The General Assembly also discussed the priorities of the ECDN both discussing the wishes of our members, and from a more borader aspect our fight for ethical and quality standards in debt advise across Europe.
This years General Assembly was held on November 28th in Copenhagen, Denmark. The major topic of this General Assembly was to elect a new Management Committee of the ECDN. The new Management Committee was unanimously approved by the General Assembly, the members are:
- President: Sandy W. Madar, The Social Legal Aid – Denmark.
- Vice-President: Maxime Pekkip, Fondation CRESUS – France.
- Secretary: Rita Hornung, Marianne von Weizsäcker Stiftung – Germany.
- Dieter Korczak, GP-Forschungsgruppe – Germany.
- Kazimierz Janiak, Society for Promotion of Financial Education – Poland.
- Kosta Skliris, NVVK – the Netherlands.
- Juha Pantzar, Guarantee Foundation – Finland.
- Bistra Vassileva, Centre Innovation and Development – Bulgaria.
On the 5th of October, the ECDN held its 11th General Assembly in the Kolpinghaus in Vienna, Austria. At this General assembly a new secretary of the ECDN was elected due to the resignation of Didier Noël from the OCE, in his stead the ECDN elected Rita Hornung of the Weiszäcker foundation.
At the General assembly the future of the coordination office was also decided, as Bistra Vassileva from the CID was not able to continue her work throughout 2018, due the the CID having several new projects, that needed her and her organisation’s attenstion. No new Coordinator was elected at this General Assembly.
2016’s General Assembly was held in Bratislava, Slovakia, on the 8th of December. At the general assembly a number of topics was discussed among other things the ECDN’s membership of Social Platform, EFIN and the EAPN, the creation of a travel budget to allow the president to participate in international conferences and the prolongation of the Coordinator, Bistra Vassileva’s, contract.
On the 8th of December, we held the 9th General Assembly of the ECDN in Berlin, Germany. Due to some members of the Management Committee resigned, the General Assembly had to elect new members for the Management Committee.
The 8th General Assembly of the ECDN was held in Brussels on December 11th. On the agenda were the presentation and admittance of new members, the discharge of the Management Committee for 2013, and the election of a new Management Committee, the new Management Committee members are:
The 7th General Assembly was unlike every other General Assembly not held anywhere, due to some turbulences within ecdn the president and secretary did not manage to organise a GA and therefore the necessary decisions were made by a written GA. I.e. points of decisions were sent to all members who then submitted their vote and concerns written to the president and secretary.
The major theme of the General Assembly was TACKLING HOUSEHOLD OVER-INDEBTEDNESS. the General Assembly was held in Athens, Greece on 21st – 23rd November. At the General Assembly the attendees heard the personal stories of three over-indebted people from Greece and Spain. Later they heard about how the media covers over-indebtedness.
The main subject of the 5th General Assembly of the ECDN was “Financial Crises – Which future? Current challanges and future perspectives for private households, debt advice and the financial sector. The General Assembly was held on November 29th to December 1st in Gdansk, Poland, 26 of ECDN’s members participated alongside 35 local guests. At this General Assembly SKEF was elected as the new Coordinator of the ECDN.
The fourth General Assembly of the ECDN was set on september 30 to October 1 in Namur, Belgium. The main focus of the General Assembly was “Regional and local treatment, prevention and assessment of over-indebtedness.” 12 members of the ECDN participated, and a new member, Catherine Frade from Portugal was accepted as a new individual member of the association. At this General Assembly, the ECDN also decided to become a member of EFIN.
It was also at this General Assembly that the old Management Committee was discharged and a new one was elected, the new members of the Management Committee are:
The third General Assembly of the ECDN was held in Vienna, Austria, on October 20-22. At the General Assembly it was decided that the ECDN should become a member of the FinInc Network, but not a founding member.
The second General Assembly of the ECDN was held on October 27-28 in Madrid, Spain; 44 people participated representing various organisations including a number of Spanish organisations.
At this General Assembly five new members were admitted into the ECDN: ADICAE from spain, Konsumentverket from Sweden, Deutsche Geselschaft für Hauswirtschaft from Germany, Storwarzyszenie na rzecz Bezpleczenstwa Finansowego Obywateli Rrzeczypospolitej Poskej from Poland, and Porodna pri financni tisni, o.p.s. from the Czech Republic.
The first ECDN Conference and the General Assembly of the ECDN took place in December 13th to 15th 2007 in Brussels. 52 participants from 17 European countries were attending The conference and general assembly will provide a unique opportunity to start or increase networking with (future) member organisations across Europe on the latest developments, best practices and urgent needs with regard to financial education, debt advice and debt settlement procedures, research on financial exclusion, access to financial services and the development of the network as such.