Minutes of the 2011 Annual General Meeting of TEAM held in Overseas House, Royal Overseas League,  Park Place, St James’s Street, London SWlA ILR on Saturday 1 October 2011.

Guests:  Jan A. Johannsson, Sweden; David Wilkinson,  UK Apologies:  Dora Debeljak, Slovenia; Johannes Rindal, Senterungdommen, Norway; Kjell Dahle, Senterpartiet, Norway; John Mills, Secretary, Labour Euro-Safeguards Campaign, UK; Hans Lindqvist, EU-kritiska Centernetvarket, Sweden; Normunds Grostins, Latvia;Poul Ruppen, Europa Magazin, Switzerland; Max Andersson, Miljöpartiet, Sweden; Gorazd Drevensek, Slovenia;  Helle Hagenau, Norway; Antti Pesonen, Finland; Mauri Nygaard, Finland.

Coordinator: Patricia McKenna, Ireland The minutes of the last meeting held in 2010 were read.  Muriel Saidlear, Ireland, agreed to take the minutes for this year’s AGM. It was agreed that minutes giving such lengthy details of discussions and speakers would not be required in future.

l.   Financial Report Lave Broch, Denmark,  gave his comments in addition to the report. Under the heading Income/expenditure An entry under Isafold, Iceland: reading  l SEK is set to 1,3438 DKK, was corrected to read l DKK is set to l,3438 SEK After this  correction was made  the Financial Report was passed and the meeting thanked Lave Broch for his work as Treasurer.

1.  Report of work over the past year TEAM helped in relation to the campaign for a referendum on Eurozone membership in Estonia by organizing meetings, opinion polls and data which could be used in the future.  This work was recognized as being very useful by the Estonian campaign. It was pointed out that keeping up-to-date lists of  TEAM membership was very time-consuming and onerous and it was suggested that one member of the incoming Board should be appointed to take responsibility for this task. The length of time in which to pursue subscriptions in the case of non-payment was decided to be one year after which, having given the affiliate notice, TEAM membership would terminate. UKIP has not paid its subscription for the year 2010-11.  It was therefore decided to allow UKIP’s membership to lapse. The TEAM webpage, which Luise Hemmer-Pihl, Denmark, had agreed to operate for the year 2010-11 to replace the Slovenian operator who had stood down, was functioning but not to its full potential. It needed to be up-dated every day if possible to attract a wide audience. It was decided that a website consisting of information from Open Europe, EU Observer, and reports from different affiliates should be posted  perhaps in the form of a newsletter which would be controlled and under the auspices of TEAM. The Link with Facebook,Twitter, etc. which would give immediate access with photographic input etc. could be used as a backup but without TEAM being responsible.  This latter would be organized and operated by the young Norwegian members.  A deadline should be set for entries to this website link inputs.

2.  Work Programme for 2011-12 This overlapped to some extent with Item No.4 on the Agenda, Report on work over the past year. Regarding the website discussion, John Boyd, UK, said he would be willing to help in a small way.  The Norwegian Youth group offered to help to operate the Link aspect of the website and in this context it was decided that they should be invited to become members of the Board irrespective of the fact that Norway would have the largest national group on the board. Lave Broch gave a report from the People’s Movement in Denmark on the upcoming Danish referendum. There will be a referendum in 2012 on EU justice policy and EU military policy – the exact date is not yet fixed. There is a Danish court case due to start on 26 March 2012 dealing with the validity of the Danish ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The presidency of the EU will be held by Denmark in the first part of 2012. It was agreed that TEAM should help in every way possible in Denmark’s referendum and in Iceland’s referendum on EU membership. The situation in Croatia needed to be handled with care to avoid TEAM becoming involved with extreme racists campaigners in the upcoming referendum on Croatia’s application for EU membership.

3. Endorsement of new TEAM affiliates There were no new affiliates.

4. Nominations Committee It was proposed that this Committee be discontinued.  However, because of TEAM’s Constitution this will have to wait until next year’s AGM when  a formal proposal to amend the constitution to this effect be put forward.  This was agreed.  One member of the incoming Board should be appointed to be responsible for this. It was decided that a date for next year’s AGM should be set as soon as possible by the Board so that it could be broadened out into wider areas for debate and discussion involving organisations concerned with environmental, peace issues and such like.

5.  Election of board, treasurer and coordinator The following were elected to the Board: Stuart Coster, UK, Sigrid Heiberg, Norway, Helle Hagenau, Norway, Karoline Runestad. Norway, Dora Debeljak, Slovenia,   Alain Bournazel, France, Ingela Mårtensson, Sweden, Patricia McKenna, Ireland – Coordinator, Lave Knud Broch, Denmark – Treasurer, Luise Hemmer Pihl, Denmark, Olli Salin, Finland

Both the Coordinator and Treasurer agreed to continue in these positions for another year. Lea Launakari, Finland, is not going forward this year.

1.  Amendments to TEAM Constitution It was agreed that the Nomination Committee be discontinued forthwith and that the Constitution should be so amended at the next AGM. Thanks were expressed to Jan Johannsson, EU Democrats, for his help in organizing the meetingplace in London.

Reports from affiliates for the different European countries were then given by those present.