Riga, 28 June 2025
Minutes of the Third Ordinary General Meeting of EUROCAPITALES INTERNATIONAL - June 28, 2025 held in Riga and by Zoom
On June 28, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. (Riga time), the members of EUROCAPITALES INTERNATIONAL association met at AC HOTEL MARRIOTT RIGA, Dzirnavu Iela, 33, Riga, LV-1010 Latvia, for its Third Ordinary General Assembly, in the presence of:
Jean-Paul Doguet (President of Eurocapitales International), Stavros Vardalas and Nikolaos Vardalas (Europe House Byron Athens), Ilari Rantakari, Jani Johansson and Eeva Parviainen (European Movement Helsinki Region), Kati Schneeberger (Europe Direct Vienna/European Youth Association/Young European Federalists), Maria-Luise Feser, Cécile and Jean-Claude Houdoin, Jean-Pierre Morizot, Jean-Louis Rizzoli, Danielle Letellier, Marie-Ange Mattiello, Danielle Schön and Marja-Liisa Strebel-Stigell (the 9 latter Eurocapitales Paris).
The Ordinary General Meeting appoints Mr. Jean-Paul Doguet as session chairman and Mrs. Maria-Luise Feser as session secretary.
The Ordinary General Meeting is called to decide on the following agenda:1
1. Presentation and approval of the annual moral report for the 2024 financial year,
2. Adoption of the draft programme for 2025-2026,
3. Presentation of the financial report for the 2024 financial year and approval of the accounts, financial situation as of end of May 2025,
4. Admission of new members and vote on the renewal/reappointment of the Management Committee and the Board,
5. Miscellaneous matters.
The Chairman, Jean-Paul Doguet, opens the meeting and presents the annual report for 2024, followed by the draft programme for 2025-26.
1. MORAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR 2024
I am happy and proud to open this third ordinary general assembly of our association EUROCAPITALES INTERNATIONAL, founded 3 years ago in Paris, on the 19th of September 2022. We held last year our 24th EUROCAPITALES Meeting in Lisbon, the 22nd-23rd and 24th of November 2024. On Friday there was a welcome drink at the Hotel Jupiter, with more or less 10 persons. On Saturday the working session took place at the Institut Goethe, Campos dos Martires da Patria.
After a welcome speech the morning session was devoted to the topic “The common defence policy in the European Union”. The moderator was Miguel DUARTE and the speakers Dr Paulo SANDE, Lawyer and Guest Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Catholic University. The other speakers were the General Luis Valença PINTO, currently President of Eurodefence-Portugal, and Helena FERRO DE GOUVEIA. After a lunch not far from the Institut, the afternoon session was devoted to a different topic: “THE FUTURE OF EUROPE AFTER THE NEW COMPOSITION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT”. The two speakers were Francisco GUERREIRO, former Green MEP, and Ricardo SILVESTRE, international Officer at the Think Tank Movimento Liberal Social. The moderator was Marcos Melo ANTUNES.
After that we held our Second Ordinary General Assembly at 4.30 PM. There was a strong debate about our accounts, but in the end all the following matters were approved by vote: the moral report for 2023-24, the draft programme for 2025 and the financial report for the 2023-24 financial year and the accounts.
Mr VARDALAS joined the Management Committee. This Committee has 9 Members: J-P DOGUET, S. VARDALAS, representing the House Byron, Ilari RANTAKARI, representing the EM Helsinki area, Maria-Luise FESER, Cécile and J-C HOUDOIN, Olga IMBERT, J-C RIZZOLI and Christine DORING. The members of the Board are: J-P DOGUET, Olga IMBERT, J-P MORIZOT, Maria-Luise FESER and Cécile HOUDOIN.
It was emphasized that the association has a total of 12 physical members and four moral members/ associations: MEF Paris, EM Helsinki region represented by Ilari RANTAKARI, the Europe House Byron Athens represented by Stavros VARDALAS and the Federal Union UK represented by Dirk HAZELL. The MEF Paris remains a member, however last month Eric DUMONT quitted, so the question of its representative at the board re-mains open. We are currently discussing this issue with MEF Paris.
After the vote we discussed on how to expand our network of pro-EU movements in European capitals, including in countries waiting for accession. It was also agreed that the Management Committee of Eurocapitales shall organize at least three Zoom meetings every year to discuss important topics: fundraising, dates and agendas of the MC meetings.
The Saturday dinner happened at the Restaurant Delfina-Cantina Portuguesa, Praça do Município. And on Sunday, the day after, the 24th of November, we visited the Palace de Ajuda.
The first Zoom meeting of the Management Committee took place on Sunday January 12, 2025 at 3:00 pm (Paris time). We discussed the venue and time for our multilateral meeting. The next one happened on the 27th of April and the third one is due to happen on 7th of September. A 90-minute Zoom Webinar in English was also organised by Eurocapitales Paris, Saturday the 21st of March 2025 at 4:00 p.m. (Paris time) on the topic Towards an EU-adhesion of North Macedonia and Albania? with three speakers: François LAFOND, French, Mrs KRISTINOVSKA a Macedonian expert, and Mrs VODO, an Albanese. I think that it was really interesting and we managed to record it. The resumes can be read on our website.
Ana KRSTINOVSKA, North-Macedonian citizen, President of Estima, Specialist in foreign policy and EU integration, addressed the following topic: North Macedonia: the curious case of the veteran in the EU accession process?, François LAFOND, French, former lecturer in Sciences-Po and at the University of Paris Sud, was councillor in North Macedonia (Skopje) and Serbia (Belgrade). He is chairman of Blue Networks and Opportunities, and member of the French European Movement. He treated the issue: Towards an EU-adhesion of North-Macedonia and Albania? And Teuta VODO, Albanian, former vice-minister of Justice, Associate Professor in Political Science-Université de Paris Cité, University Lecturer (Sciences Po Paris), spoke about: An Albanian view on the accession process.
Please remember as well that we have now our internet site “eurocapitales.com” since 2023 in French and in English language and you will find there all information concerning past and future events with programmes, invitations, meeting memos, photos and recordings (see Activities > International or Paris). We thank you in advance for all information you should wish to communicate on this site.
And in the end, we are here in Riga Latvia thanks to our member Stavros VARDALAS and to our Latvian partners who made it possible: organizing a new Multilateral Meeting for this year. I would like to express our deep gratitude to Stavros, a really motivated and valuable member of the Network. We look forward to seeing him and some more European friends next year at our next 26th Meeting.
We will be also delighted if some more members, be it from Latvia or Austria, will join our association. For now, we don’t need to renew our Board and vote because we made it last year. Our statutes are clear: such a vote must be renewed every two years. The official year for the membership contributions 2025 has started on the 1st of January and is not finished yet. Therefore, our ongoing members who have not yet paid for 2025 are not forced to renew their contribution now, but after all it would more convenient if they do.
2. PROVISIONAL REPORT 2026
Two events are scheduled for the year to come: we will hold a Management Committee Zoom meeting in September (Sunday the 7th of September at 3 PM Paris time) to discuss the place and time for our next Meeting in 2026. Many options remain open: Athens, Helsinki, Paris. And 90-minute webinar in the first or second week of October 2025 on a topic whose specific wording still needs to be fixed. We talked about it in the past. We suggested inviting the French AI specialist Laurence Devillers might be an option. Our Finnish partners suggested the participation of Henna Virkunnen. It remains to debate.
Let me express my pride and gratitude for this event we are now attending today. The pride is for us all, and the gratitude goes to all our members and partners, especially Stavros. I think that creating a permanent association was a good option for our network and I look forward to attending some more meetings within that frame. Some partners come and some other ones go, that’s life. But the main thing is that the network goes on.
3. FINANCIAL REPORT at December 31, 2024, and May 31, 2025
Then Cécile Houdoin, our treasurer, presented the financial report at 31 December 2024: Our association aims to bring together representatives from European associations across the continent by encouraging exchanges between European citizens, either through video conferences or visits to various European capitals.
We need to increase our visibility and strengthen the ties among our partners. To date, we remain financially fragile, with membership fees (see Annex 1) as our sole source of income, the number of which remains modest. Currently, expenses are limited to bank fees only.
We recorded bank charges of €119.88 (representing a monthly cost of €9.99) and income of €240. We allocated the end-of-2024 membership fees - mostly collected during the multilateral meeting on November 23 and 24 - to the 2025 fiscal year.
The financial result for the year is modest but positive (€120.12), and we propose to the General Assembly that this amount be carried forward along with the 2023 result.
At the end of December 2024, our bank balance was €537.48, taking into account the 2025 membership fees received at the end of the fiscal year.
Before presenting the resolutions to the Assembly, we propose to give an update on the financial situation as of the end of May 2025. Membership fees, including those received in late 2024, amount to €190, and bank charges total €50.90 (€10.18 x 5) and payment of half of rental cost (€275). The provisional result is therefore €-135.90 with a bank balance of €361.58.
The General Assembly approves the 2024 accounts as presented, which show a surplus of €120.12 and resolves to allocate the fiscal year result to retained earnings, bringing the total to €497.48.
4. ACCESSION OF NEW MEMBERS AND VOTE ON THE RENEWAL/REAPPOINTMENT OF THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE AND THE BOARD
EUROCAPITALES INTERNATIONAL is pleased to welcome a new member: Kati Schneeberger, Austrian, from Europe Direct Vienna joins our association, either as an individual member or through her association BEJ (European Youth Association/Young European Ferderalists - Bund Europäischer Jugend/Junge Europäische Föderalisten). We are waiting for her membership registration.
The Management Committee is composed as follows:
- Jean-Paul Doguet, French,
- Ilari Rantakari, Finnish, representing the European Movement Helsinki Region,
- Stavros Vardalas, Greek, representing the Europe House Byron Athense Byron Athens,
- Maria-Luise Feser, German,
- Cécile Houdoin, French
- Claude Houdoin, French,
- Olga Imbert, Dutch,
- Christine Doring, French,
- Jean-Louis Rizzoli, French.
The General Meeting renews the following members of the Board:
- Jean-Paul Doguet, Chairman, French,
- Olga Imbert, Vice-Chairman, Dutch,
- Jean-Pierre Morizot, Second Vice-Chairman, French,
- Maria-Luise Feser, General Secretary, German,
- Cécile Houdoin, Treasurer, French.
To date, the association has a total of 12 physical members and four moral members/ associations:
- Mouvement Européen-France Paris, France, represented by Jean-Claude Houdoin,
- European Movement Helsinki Region, Finland, represented by Ilari Rantakari,
- Europe House Byron Athens, Greece, represented by Stavros Vardalas,
- Federal Union, UK, represented by Dirk Hazell.
After approval of the moral and financial reports, the Chairman adjourned the meeting.
The Chairman of the meeting - Jean-Paul Doguet
The Secretary of the meeting - Maria-Luise Feser
