STATUTORY TEXTS
MANIFESTO OF THE PARTICIPANTS
IN THE CONFERENCE HELD IN CHALKIDIKI IN JUNE OF 1993 AT THE INITIATIVE OF THE GREEK PARLIAMENT TO DISCUS THE TOPIC: “ORTHODOXY IN THE NEW EUROPEAN REALITY”
We, the participants in the Conference convened by the Greek Parliament in Chalkidiki, from 30 June to 4 July 1993 on the topic of “Orthodoxy in the New European Reality”, exchanged views on the basic questions referring to the cultural, social, historical and spiritual significance of the position and the role played in the new European reality by the Orthodox peoples, who comprise approximately half the population of Europe.
The Conference was pleased to take note of the fall of the atheistic regimes, which were contrary to human nature.
The above changes, as well as the changes taking place in Western Europe, including the Maastricht Treaty, must be understood and expressed through new, unified political and cultural terms.
In analysing this new reality, it must seek the possibility and the ability of the European Economic Community to take on and use Orthodoxy as another cultural expression.
Moreover, the institutional framework on which the European Economic Community bases its existence leaves the widest margins for recording a variety of cultural expressions of a historical, religious and theological character.
The Conference calls on Greece, as the only Orthodox member of the European Economic Community, to promote all the prerequisites for recognition by the European Community of the progressive role of the Orthodox tradition in shaping European civilisation.
The Conference calls on the Russian Federation, as the only Orthodox member of the Security Council of the United Nations, to defend in the Council the common interests of the Orthodox peoples and not to permit any discrimination against them.
The Conference calls on all its member countries to oppose existing misinformation in reports of the part played by Orthodox peoples in areas of conflict.
The Conference encourages the unanimous contribution of the Orthodox peoples in planning future developments in the Balkans and in Europe.
In addition, it evaluates the role of Orthodoxy in the present-day course of developments in Europe, it utilises all those elements of the common spiritual heritage which have gone to make up its identity through the years and its contemporary thought.
The Conference calls on the Orthodox peoples to exploit the ability of Orthodoxy to transcend any nationalistic tendencies or tendencies to complacency and through its unity and ecumenicality, to stress its own special identity, of the Balkans and Eastern Europe in the pluralism of the common European Home, and to seek for ways in which it can contribute to the building and establishment of peace and justice in the new Europe.
It also feels the obligation to foster means of cooperation between all political and religious factors and effective means of protection where required by religious minorities, whether they live in traditional Orthodox countries or elsewhere.
The Conference regards the attempts to change the religious and cultural map of Europe, through proselytism and fostering of religious antagonisms, as being highly objectionable.
The Conference, on the basis of the Orthodox tradition of the supreme worth of the human individual, proposes that the contribution of Orthodoxy be broadened to include the search for solutions to the problems of concern to the contemporary European citizen: ecological and social problems, mental illness, other private matters, racism, etc.
The Conference has stressed the ability which Orthodoxy has, as the preeminently unifying force in the Eastern part of Europe, to function as a bridge between Europe and other civilisations, particularly those of Asia, thus contributing to the consolidation of peace.
The Conference expresses its solidarity with persecuted and suffering Orthodox and other Christian peoples.
The Conference has explored the need for continuous contact between the political sphere, governments, parliaments, their Churches, the intellectual institutions and the personalities of the countries with Orthodox populations, as well as other organisational forms of cooperation between Orthodox peoples.
The participants in this parliamentary forum express the will to meet in September in Athens, under the aegis of the Greek Parliament, for organising the Founding Assembly and establishing an Interparliamentary Committee.
Finally, the participants in the Conference commend all the efforts made by the Greek Parliament and the Interparliamentary Committee for Religious Affairs and Orthodoxy in organising and holding the Conference.
FOUNDING ACT
Article 1
The Orthodox Members of Parliament, as representatives of the European States, do hereby decide the establishment of the “European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy”,
Article 2
a. The European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy shall consist of Parliamentary delegations whose members shall be Orthodox deputies.
b. The participation of the Orthodox Members of Parliament in the Interparliamentary Assembly shall be decided in pursuance of the Standing Orders of each Parliament, either by its Plenary Session or by its Bureaus. In case the Parliament of each country fails to appoint deputies as representatives to the above Assembly, the group of the Orthodox Deputies of each country may designate and send its own representatives to the Assembly.
c. Those countries who have an organized and administratively autonomous local Orthodox Church and yet, there is no Orthodox member in their Parliament, may be requested to send observers non-orthodox to the Assembly derived from their Parliaments.
d. The representation of each Parliament may reach up to five members. The representation of Parliament consisting of two parliamentary bodies shall be defined in pursuance of paragraph b of present article and in accordance with the constitutional provisions in force in each country.
Article 3
The objectives of the Interparliamentary Assembly were promulgated at the Chalkidiki Conference of July 3, 1993, which was organized by the Hellenic Parliament. These objectives are as follows:
a. The recording and evaluation of the changes taking place in Europe.
b. The enhancement of the role of Orthodoxy within the framework of the European Union and the consolidation of Orthodoxy as an important and necessary political cultural and spiritual entity geared towards the shaping of a new European reality.
c. The contribution of the ecumenical and unifying spirit of Orthodoxy both towards the transcendence of extreme nationalistic, confessionary and religious contradictions and the discovery of effective means for the protection of ethnic or religious minorities.
d. The cooperation with international organisations aiming at upholding respect for the cultural and religious map of Europe and guarding against any form of proselytism, as well as averting phenomena of confessionary or religious antagonism or activities or phenomena of attack against social and political morality which engender religious intolerance and ethno-racial fanaticism in Europe.
e. The support of the role of Orthodox culture as a unifying force in Eastern Europe and as a bridge for Europe in its relationships with the other cultures.
f. The support of human rights and religious freedoms not only of the Christians but also of the adherents of other religions, both in the European countries and throughout the world, through interventions made to international organisations and to local State authorities.
g. The better utilisation of the role played by Greece and Russia in the European Union and in the United Nations Security Council respectively for the upgrading and affirmation of the significant unifying role of Orthodoxy.
h. The encouragement of contacts between parliamentary, political, ecclesiastical, academic and spiritual figures, or institutions geared towards the development of an Orthodox cultural heritage and their contribution to the contemporary global dialogue on human rights and the peaceful coexistence of peoples.
i. The fuller activation of Orthodoxy with the purpose of its promoting solutions to the critical problems of contemporary European society and the ecological environment.
Article 4
The Interparliamentary Assembly shall implement its objectives through:
a. Interventions made to International Organisations and to international public opinion.
b. Resolutions arrived at and Representations made to Governments and Churches, Organisations and Institutions involved
c. Proclamations of principles.
d. The dispatching of its delegations to crucial decision-making centres.
e. The organization of parliamentary conferences.
f. Publications, TV and Radio broadcasts.
g. The setting up of liaisons with similar international or regional groupings.
Article 5
1. a. The supreme Assembly of the Interparliamentary Assembly shall be the Plenary Session of the Parliamentary delegations participating in it.
b. The General Assembly shall convene once a year, in June, in a state decided by the General Assembly during its last session. The proceedings of the Interparliamentary Assembly shall be directed by the President who shall be elected by the plenary session of the Assembly. The President shall address a relevant invitation to all members which shall contain the programme of the works and the issues to be discussed, as they are set forth by the Secretariat.
c. Each Parliamentary delegation shall have one vote. The plenary shall be considered as constituting a quorum when the three fifths of the countries participating in the Assembly are present at its sessions. The decisions shall be taken by an absolute majority of the members present. A majority of two thirds of the members shall be required to amend the statute.
d. The plenary can be summoned extraordinarily by its President, following a recommendation by the Secretariat, within two months after submission of the recommendation. The recommendation by the Secretariat must state the specific reasons calling for the extraordinary convocation of the plenary.
2.a. A Secretariat shall be set up with a view to the preparation of the issues and the implementation of the resolutions of the Assembly. The Secretariat shall be composed of seven (7) members. Its members shall be elected by the Assembly.
b. The seat of the Secretariat shall be in Athens. The Secretariat shall be convoked three times a year and extraordinarily in case it is deemed necessary by the Secretary-General.
c. The Secretariat members’ term of office, as well as this of the President of the Assemble shall be for two years
d. Russia and Greece shall be permanent members of the Secretariat.
e. The General Secretary shall direct the works of the Secretariat. He shall be a member of its 7 – member composition. As General Secretary shall be appointed the representative of Greece who shall organize the modus operandi of the Secretariat.
f. The Hellenic Parliament shall undertake the obligation, through its Parliamentary Committee on Religion and Orthodoxy, to provide the necessary support for the functioning of the Secretariat.
Article 6
The present Founding Act, which was adopted on 5 November 1994 by the participating states in the Founding Synod of the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy in Athens, was drawn up in the Greek, Russian, English and French languages; each text is equally authentic and shall be signed by the delegations.
Article 5, par. 1, sub-par. B, second phrase and Article 5, par. 2 sub-par. C have been thus formulated, following the amendments voted upon by the General Assembly, convoked in Sofia in 1996.
REGULATION OF FUNCTION
[Passed at the annual convention of E.I.A.O. held in Warsaw in June of 1998]
COMPOSITION – PARTICIPATION
1. Based on the Founding Act of the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, as adopted at the Founding General Assembly of Athens in 1993 and amended at the General Assembly of Sophia in 1996, members of the Assembly, participating with parliamentary delegations, are the countries mentioned below:
Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, New Yugoslavia, Greece, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Latvia, Belarus, Lithuania, Moldavia, Ukraine, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Slovakia, Chechia, and Finland, i.e. 20 countries.
2. Observers, in the sense of article 2, par. c. of the Founding Act or for whatever other reason the General Assembly resolved, may be parliamentary delegations from other European states or likewise from other states of other continents, which spiritually belong to the Ecumenical and the other initially established Patriarchates. The members of parliamentary delegations of countries participating as observers in the Assembly, hold solely the right of speech, are not eligible for Secretaryship, while they are eligible for members of the committee or participation in working groups.
3. The way of appointment and the number of members of parliament participating in each delegation is stipulated in article 2 of the Founding Act the General Assembly (G.A.), following a proposal made by the Secretariat, brings paragraph b of article 2 of the Assembly’s Founding Act into effect.
4. The General Assembly, following a proposal made by the Secretariat, increases the number of the E.I.A.O. members and of the observers.
5. The term of office as members of delegations coincides with the term of office as members of the national parliament in which one belongs. Participation of members in the delegation is confirmed by the President of the national parliament in each annual General Assembly.
6. The E.I.A.O. delegation members must be members of their national Parliaments. In case a delegation member ceases being a member of his national Parliament, he then, likewise, ceases being member of his delegation, while the parliament in which he belongs appoints a new member instead.
7. In case a member is for whatever reason in no position to participate in the E.I.A.O. events the President of the national parliament may appoint a temporary substitute for a certain event or time period. In such cases, the substitute bears all the rights of the member he is substituting for.
THE ASSEMBLY’S ORGANS
1. These are the Plenary Session of Parliamentary Delegations (General Assembly) and the Secretariat.
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
1. According to art. 5, par. 1a of the Founding Act, it is the supreme organ of the E.I.A.O. and consists of the Delegations of all member states.
2. The way in which the General Assembly convenes and the way decision-making occurs during its sittings is stipulated in article 5 par. 1 of the E.I.A.O. Charter Act.
3. The General Assembly convenes once annually, during the month of June, in a city decided upon by none other during its every last sitting. The countries and cities are decided upon by the Assembly following a proposal of the member states wanting to is submitted to the Secretariat and its suggestion to the G.A. The city in which the Assembly shall convene must provide the necessary infrastructure, while the expenses of the G.A. and the way in which these will be covered are agreed upon with the Secretariat, which also participates in covering the costs. In case during the year, problems occur which do not allow for the realisation of the G.A. in the city decided upon, then by proposal of the President of the G.A. the Secretariat can decide for change in place and inform the members of the Assembly on this change.
4. The G.A. is summoned by its President by means of his invitation addressed to each President of the national parliaments in order for the latter to appoint the delegation of his parliament to the Assembly. In the invitation both the agenda of the G.A. which the Secretariat has decided for is included and the number of members invited to each G.A. by each parliament, which number remains the same for all parliaments but should not exceed five members.
5. The members of parliament participating in the G.A. are also members of the Assembly. At the extraordinary General Assemblies summoned by the President following decision and proposal of the Secretariat, the invitations are addressed to the members of the Assembly (natural entities) of that year, while service of the invitations is additionally sent to the presidents of the national parliaments.
6. The G.A. commences its sitting on the basis of the agenda proposed to the President by the Secretariat. For any addition of a new item to the agenda it is necessary that a motion is submitted to the President of the G.A., which is presented in order to be voted for and registered on the agenda.
7. Each member state has the right to cast one vote at the G.A. which is reflected by the representative of the parliamentary delegation of the particular county who eventually reflects each country’s view on the issue under discussion in a responsible manner. Each member of parliament, member of the G.A., holds the right to express his views freely even if these are other than those held by the head of his national delegation.
8. All sittings and discussions of the G.A. are open to the public unless the opposite is resolved by the aforementioned organ. The public whose presence during the sittings has been accepted remains seated and quiet while the President holds the power to expel from the assembly hall individuals obstructing the works of the Body.
9. The order and time limits of the members’ speeches must be set by the president at the beginning, while in case of a counter proposal the G.A. is to decide. Reporters appointed by the Secretariat or the standing committees in order to present their recommendations precede other speakers. Members wishing to be called upon to speak must submit a request to the President in writing or orally. The General Secretariat is called upon to speak immediately after this has been requested and after the termination of the member-speaker’s address. If the speech time allotted to members of the sitting is deemed insufficient and in order for the discussion on the issue to be completed within the total of the set time, the G.A. may reduce the speech time allotted to each member of the sitting but to no less than three minutes by means of its decision. No speaker can be interrupted by anybody without his prior consent, unless it is the President. If a speaker falls beyond the scope of the under discussion issue, the President may bring him back into focusing on the relevant issue, and in case he insists he is then deprived of speech.
10. Members of the sitting obstructing the process of the G.A. in whatever possible way, unless they comply with the President’s recommendations, he may then inflict penalties which are: reprimand, five minute expulsion from the assembly hall, a half hour expulsion and expulsion for the rest of the particular sitting of the G.A.
11. The minutes of the G.A. are recorded on tape and de-recorded and published on responsibility of the Secretariat. If the President of the G.A. finds that the speaker uses words and expressions which insult the honour and reputation of individuals, members of the G.A. in particular, he then holds the right to suggest that these are taken back, otherwise he holds the right to forbid their recording in the minutes.
Furthermore, if the President finds such words or expressions recorded in the minutes he holds the right to order for them to be removed.
12. Every member of the sitting requesting to be called upon to speak on a personal subject or places an issue of procedure or order, is called by the President of the G.A. in order to explain in one minute the nature of the placed issue. If according to the President’s estimation an issue actually exists, he is then called upon to speak for three minutes. The G.A. decides on the issue which was placed.
13. Prime Ministers, presidents of parliaments, ministers, leaders of autocephalus Christian churches of member countries of the E.I.A.O. may be invited and to speak at the G.A. by notice of the Secretariat or even the President. By suggestion of the President of the G.A. and the Secretariat’s approval, non members of the Assembly may be invited in order to speak at the G.A. on a prearranged by the Secretariat subject or to observe the works of the G.A. without the right of speech unless these are held in camera.
14. International organisations or non governmental organisations, i.e. the European parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the W.E.U., the Parliamentary Assembly of the P.A.B.S.E.C, the North-Atlantic Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Security and Cooperation Council in Europe and others, may participate in the G.A. as observers, upon notice addressed to them by the President and approval of the Secretariat.
PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1. The main responsibilities of the President of the G.A. are:
- To convene the G.A. once a year during the month of June at a place which has been decided by the G.A.
- To convene the G.A. extraordinarily whenever and in whatever way the present rules of order stipulate.
- In order for the G.A. to convene invitations are sent to relative parliaments of the Assembly’s member states. -To preside at the General Assembly.
- To contribute to the implementation of the General Assembly’s decisions.
- To contribute to the distribution of the Assembly’s principles and the decisions of its organs.
- To follow in cooperation with the General Secretariat the activity of international organisations, European and other, the European Union’s and actors’ having similar objectives as those of the E.I.A.O., to cooperate with theses and to project the views of the Assembly.
2. The President of the G.A. is called by the General Secretariat obligatorily to the meetings of the Secretariat. The invitation addressed to him includes the items of the agenda, and in addition to this, he is sent the folder which is sent to all the members of the Secretariat. During the meetings he holds the right of speech which is given immediately upon request.
3. In case of the President’s absence, the G.A. elects a provisional President for the needs of the particular sitting and for as long as the President is absent.
THE SECRETARIAT
1. The composition and the manner of formation of the Secretariat are referred to in article 5 par. 2 of the Founding Act as amended at the G.A. of Sophia in June 1996.
2. The Secretariat of the E.I.A.O. as for that matter stipulated in the Founding Act of the Assembly, article 5 par. 2 subpar.b has its seat in Athens.
3. Candidatures for the position of Secretariat members are submitted by the head of each parliamentary delegation, in which the names of the nominees are also included, who must participate in the specific parliamentary mission of their country participating in the G.A..
4. If, during the Secretariat’s term, one of its members loses his parliamentary or senatorial identity, then the President of the national parliament appoints another instead by means of a letter to the General Secretariat and he performs his duties for the remaining term of the state’s member he substituted for.
5. The Secretariat constitutes the executive organ of the General Assembly’s decisions and the outwards official expression of the E.I.A.O., while between two General Assemblies it is the supreme organ of political decisions which indeed must always be consistent with the Assembly’s declared founding and articles of association principles.
6. The Secretariat’s main duties are:
- To implement and execute the decisions of the G.A.
- To plan, decide upon and promote initiatives and actions, such that will serve the Assembly’s principles, the decisions of the G.A. and render the Assembly’s objectives known throughout the world.
- To plan the agenda, the time schedule and in general whatever concerns the G.A.
- To draw up each year’s budget plan and the annual report of the previous one and have them submitted to the G.A. through the treasurer in order for them to be approved.
- To manage the Assembly’s finances.
- To care for the collection of voluntary contributions of member states of the Assembly and the increase of its revenues through financial aid originating from various sources but which should not bind the Assembly in any way whatsoever and change alter its nature.
- To coordinate the activity of the committees, to inform the Assembly on this and to take the required initiatives in forming new committees.
- To form working groups out of the Assembly’s members or even specialists who will facilitate its work.
- To follow, together with the President of the G.A., the action of international organisations, European fora having similar objectives and the European Union’s, to cooperate with them and to project the positions of the Assembly.
Apart from these main objectives, it holds all other assigned to it by the G.A., or it personally decides for within the frame of the G.A.’s decisions.
7. The Secretariat is called to convene by the General Secretariat. According to article 6 par. 2 subpar. e of the Assembly’s Founding Act, the office of General Secretariat is held by the standing delegate of Greece to the Secretariat. On the day the new Secretariat is elected by the G.A., the head of the Hellenic parliamentary mission to the G.A. announces the name of the standing Greek delegate, who is also the new General Secretary of the Assembly’s Secretariat, and his substitute, who is also member of the Hellenic parliamentary mission to the specific G.A.
SECRETARY GENERAL
8. The Secretary General is the head of the Secretariat.
9. The duties of the Secretary General are amongst others:
- To represent the Assembly against any political, religious, judicial or other authority.
- To summon a session of the Secretariat.
- To preside over the sessions of the Secretariat.
- To recommend issues to the Secretariat.
- To appoint the rapporteurs of issues at the sessions of the Secretariat.
- To invite personalities in order for them to visit the Secretariat’s seat and follow its sessions.
- To care and coordinate the action of any G.A. organs, as well as the work committees in cooperation with the President of the G.A. for the projection of the Assembly’s positions towards every international and European organisation and the mass media.
- To promote the cooperation among the committees of religion of the European parliaments and to care for everything contributing to the promotion of the Assembly’s declared positions.
10. The Deputy Secretary General substitutes the Secretary General during his absence, and is moreover invited and attends the Secretariat’s sessions having a right to speech but without being eligible to vote.
11. The Secretariat is seated in offices assigned to it by the Hellenic Parliament.
12. Invitations to the three standing annual sessions of the Secretariat but also to any extraordinary ones, are sent by the Secretary General to the members of the Secretariat and the President of the G.A. at least 20 days prior to the sitting,
including the agenda and the rapporteurs of issues, while an effort is additionally made for the reports to be sent within 5 days prior to the sitting.
13. The majority of the Secretariat’s members have the right to request from the General Secretary for the Secretariat to convene by means of a fully justified letter, while he is obliged as to summon the International Secretariat to assemble within a month.
14. At the Secretariat’s sessions the right to speech and vote is solely confined to the members of the Secretariat. All individuals invited by the Secretary General only have the right to speech. The sessions of the General Secretariat are not open to the public.
15. During the assemblies of the Secretariat and on responsibility of the Secretary General, brief minutes are held by official agents. Prior to the close of the sessions the decisions made are read which are later written in the Hellenic and Russian language into the book of decisions and signed by the members of the Secretariat at the following session.
COMMITTEES
1. The following standing committees have been established
by decision of the G.A.:
a) Committee of finance
b) Committee on the rules of function
c) Human rights committee
d) Social issues committee
e) Committee on education
f) Committee on culture
The task of the committees is to recommend to the G.A. and the Secretariat. Issues to be processed and discussed at the committees may be assigned by the G.A., the Secretariat within the frame of the G.A.’s decisions or even the committee itself may decide following recommendation of its president, always with the approval of the Secretariat.
2. The number of the committees may increase solely by decision of the G.A.
3. The number of committee members is determined by the G.A. while both its members and president are elected by it.
4. Members of a committee may not originate from the same state unless the number of members of all state delegations has been exhausted.
5. The committee elects its rapporteur for each specific issue to be processed, by means of an open election among its members. The rapporteur bears the responsibility for the preparation of the report and even introduces the committee’s suggestion-recommendation to the G.A.
6. The committees convene following the proposal of their president and the approval of the Secretariat, which determines the place and time of session, likewise, the way in which the occurring expenses are to be met. Two or even more committees may have common sessions on issues of common interest.
7. The committees, in accordance with the Secretariat, may assign the study of specific issues to special committees or specific individuals.
8. The decisions of the committees are taken by a relative majority of those present.
9. The decisions of the committees are submitted to the Secretariat which in turn submits them to be voted for at the G.A. either supplemented or not with a positive or negative recommendation of the Secretariat itself.
– If the Secretariat rules that there is no reason to have a committee’s recommendation submitted to the G.A. then it may not do so. The members of a committee whose issue, by suggestion of the Secretariat, was not submitted for voting to the G.A. may request anew for the discussion of the in question issue at the Secretariat of the specific report in order for it to be submitted to the G.A. If the Secretariat again decides negatively, then the committee may, by its decision, ask the presiding board of the G.A. to have the G.A. itself decide whether it will take the committee’s report into consideration.
10. The meetings of the committees are not open to the public.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
1. The Assembly’s fixed and constant resources are the voluntary contributions of member states which are deposited in the Assembly’s treasury on a bank account opened for this purpose at a central Athenian bank which the Secretariat is to choose, in the name of the General Secretary and the Treasurer of the Secretariat.
In addition, the assembly’s financial resources are supplemented by contributions and donations of the Assembly’s members, its followers and sponsors and by other contributions which are not forbidden by the Hellenic law. The E.I.A.O. assets are composed of the aforementioned resources which are accepted by decision of the Secretariat. At the initial G.A. of approval of the present regulation of function, a decision is made, following the recommendation of the Secretariat resulting from the finances committee’s opinion, on the amount – basis for the contribution of each member state of the Assembly which is the same for all member states.
Following the G.A.’s conclusion, a letter is sent to the president of each parliament whose state participates in the Assembly and he is announced the decision and way in which his parliament may reimburse its annual contribution. If the member state is unable to reimburse the specific amount, then the Secretariat may adapt it to the potentials of the Member State.
Following the Secretariat’s suggestion to the G.A., the annual contribution may increase by approval of the delegation of the Member – State and the E.I.A.O.
Following a relevant to this case request submitted to the General Secretariat by a member state of the E.I.A.O. on time and prior to the realisation of the expense and after its approval, they are considered to have partially covered the annual contribution, expenses to which it was subjected to, for the holding of the Assembly’s Plenary Session or General Secretariat’s Meeting in its country.
2. The Hellenic state, through its National Parliament cares for the assistance of the function of the Secretariat which is seated in Athens.
It reimburses the rents for the Offices and in agreement with the Secretariat additionally reimburses an extra amount in order to partially meet the costs of the Secretariat’s function.
3. The finances committee recommends and the International Secretariat decides for the manner of accounting management of the money. Nevertheless, the management is governed by the following principles:
It operates within the frame of the G.A.’s principles and objectives and the approved by the G.A. budget.
No expense is executed and is neither acknowledged without prior approval of the Secretariat which informs the finances committee accordingly.
Nobody is entitled to proceed to a financial or other activity whatsoever in the name of the Assembly or the Secretariat, whatever the source the money may originate from, even if these are out of account, without the Secretariat’s prior decision.
The documents are signed by the Secretariat’s treasurer.
4. The Secretariat, following consultation with the finances committee, appoints one of its members or the members of the finances committee to be treasurer of the Assembly.
He is held responsible and accountable for the good management of the money and cares in order for the Secretariat, following the recommendation of the finances committee on the manner of account management of the Assembly’s treasury money. The treasurer without the Secretariat’s relevant decision, is entitled to make an expense up to an amount which is determined by decision of the Secretariat.
For expenses exceeding the in question amount, the decision of the Secretariat is always required.
If the treasurer is absent, Secretary General, functioning as treasurer, holds all the powers which the treasurer does, including the power to sign financial documents.
5. The treasurer’s duties are among others:
-To be responsible for the Assembly’s financial directorate.
-To submit to the Secretariat in cooperation with the finances committee the budget plan for the sitting of April.
-To submit to the Secretariat at the September sitting the approved by the G.A. budget.
-To submit to the Secretariat at the June sitting prior to the G.A. its audited accounts of the past year and the annual financial report.
-To participate in the finances committee whose aim is to secure and increase the Assembly’s revenues.
6. The Assembly’s revenues may for no reason whatsoever be redistributed among its members.
LANGUAGES OF THE ASSEMBLY
The Assembly’s official languages are Hellenic, Russian, English and French. At the General Assemblies, the Secretariat cares for the simultaneous translation in all these languages. At Secretariat and committee sessions care is taken for the translation needs to be covered.
INTERIM PROVISIONS
The G.A. by adoption of the present regulation, following the suggestion of the Secretariat, may postpone the effect of articles of the present, and the Secretariat may act likewise regarding articles of the present relevant to it. The present regulation shall come into effect following its approval by the Assembly and its translation into the official languages of the Assembly.
