Statutes
of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Registered Association
Section 1 – Name and Headquarters
The Association bears the name “European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics” (hereinafter called “The Association”). It shall be entered in the register of associations. According to the entry the name of the Association is the “European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics regd. Assoc.” It has its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main.
Section 2 – Purpose
- The Association pursues exclusively and directly non-profit making purposes within the meaning of the section “tax privileged purposes” of the German Tax Code. The Association shall serve the purpose of promotion and further development of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics in research, teaching and care of the sick, the establishment of clinical pharmacological departments and institutes and their task in health care as well as co-operation between the national societies and sections of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics in Europe.
- The Association shall be unselfish in its activity. It shall not primarily pursue its own commercial purposes. In their use for the public benefit, its funds may only be utilised for purposes in accordance with the statutes. It may not favor any person by means of expenditures which are foreign to the purposes of the Association, or by means of excessively high reimbursements. Every resolution concerning an alteration to the statutes shall be submitted to the responsible tax office before being notified to the registry court.
- The Association shall realise its aims by:
- promoting the use of clinical pharmacological services in healthcare delivery
- improving and harmonising the teaching of the rational use of drugs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels
- contributing with clinical pharmacological expertise to state policy decisions regarding the regulation of drugs in Europe
- arranging scientific meetings, workshops and courses in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics in Europe
- utilizing the skills of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics in counteracting misuse of prescriptions drugs and other chemical substances
- promoting problem and patient-orientated drug information about medicines for physicians and other health professionals
- increasing the input of clinical pharmacological skills in the evaluation of drugs
- promoting high professional standards in the prescribing of drugs
- promoting high ethical standards in clinical drug research
- promoting the exchange of opinions in individual countries with regards to existing differences in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
- encouraging collaboration with other agencies interested in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics e.g. WHO, European Regulatory Network, IUPHAR
Section 3 – The Financial Year
The financial year shall be the calendar year.
Section 4 – Membership
- Membership shall be acquired by acceptance. Upon admission all members shall acknowledge these statutes.
- Only clinical pharmacological and therapeutic(s) associations as well as pharmacological associations being represented by a representative of a section of clinical pharmacology can be members.
- Persons from countries without clinical pharmacological societies can be admitted as individual members of the Association when approved by the delegates at the general meeting. Individual members have no voting rights.
- International organisations which have similar interests to the Association and wish to collaborate with the Association may become Affiliated Members of the Association. An application should be made in writing to the Honorary Secretary and be approved by a full meeting of the Executive Committee before being endorsed by the Council. Each Affiliated Member of the Association has the right to be represented by a single delegate on the Council of the Association. Delegates of Affiliated Members shall not be able to stand as candidates for the Executive Committee or as Officers of the Association.
- Any member, corporate entity or individual can be elected as a Benefactor of the Association in recognition of exceptional contribution(s) to the cause of the Association. They will be elected by Council after their name has been put forward by the Executive Committee. Benefactors are exempted from paying membership fees.
Section 5 – Rights and Obligations
- All members shall be obligated to safeguard the interests of the Association, to contribute to the achievements of its objectives and to comply with its directives.
- The members shall be required to advise the Association of the number of their members by the 1st April of the current year and to pay the determined subscriptions. Any member who is more than two years in arrears with their annual subscription to the Association shall have their membership of the Association terminated after three months due notice has been served by the treasurer or secretary. Membership shall be restored automatically once the due subscriptions have been paid. At the latest one month before the Council meeting (Section 8) they shall announce the names of their Council/management board to the Association. They shall be required to advise of any possible increase or decrease of the number of members in the course of the financial year at the end of each quarter.
- The members shall exercise their membership rights in the Council through their authorised representative(s) (delegate(s)). The allocation of delegate numbers on Council to members is described in the Bylaws of the Association.
The individual members are free to decide the manner in which they determine their delegate(s) to the Council. However, the delegate(s) should normally be medically qualified, be trained in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, and belong to an association for clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, or in the case of an association of pharmacology, to its section for clinical pharmacology.
Members must notify the names and contact details of their chosen delegate(s) to the Secretary of the Association at the latest by January 1st of the year in which elections to the council take place.
In so far as the contribution has not been paid, the right to vote shall be suspended. - The members shall not receive any grants from the funds of the Association.
- Membership shall lapse upon withdrawal, dissolution or exclusion. The obligation of payment of the contribution until the end of the current financial year shall remain effective.
- Upon expiry of membership all rights which result from membership of the Association shall be forfeited. No claims to refunds, no matter of what kind, may be made.
- Withdrawal is only permissible by the end of the financial year and must be communicated in writing to the Executive Committee three months previously.
- The exclusion of a member may result if they repeatedly or severely offend against the Statutes of the Association, grossly disregards its orders and directives, or has considerably endangered its interests. The Council shall decide upon the exclusion at the proposal of the Executive Committee. Before each decision the affected party shall be granted an opportunity to be heard either orally or in writing. Should they not make use of this opportunity by the date determined, despite a written request to do so, the decision may be made without a hearing having in fact taken place.
Section 6 – Organs
The organs of the Association are:
- The Executive Committee
- The Council
Section 7 – The Executive Committee
- To the Executive Committee belong:
- The Chairman
- The elected future Chairman
- The immediate Past-Chairman
- The Treasurer
- The Secretary
- Six Councillors
- Honorary Presidents (see clause 12 in this section)
- The Executive Committee – excepting section 7, clause 1g – of the Association is the management board in the Sense of Art. 26 BGB (German Civil Code ). For the judicial and extra judicial safeguarding of the rights of the Association, either the chairman alone, or at any time two members of the Executive Committee shall be jointly authorised. The honorary president is not an officer in the sense of Art. 26 BGB, and is therefore not legally entitled to represent it.
- The period of office of the Chairman shall be two years. He/she shall first be elected as future chairman to the executive board, acts then two years as chairman and remains as past chairman for two further years in office. Each further member of the Executive Committee shall be elected for two years and may be re-elected for a second consecutive period of office. Its members shall be elected by Council.
The process of the election system for the Executive Committee of the Association and for the subsequent election of the Officers of the Association is described in the Bylaws of the Association. - Positions in the Executive Committee which become vacant between periods of office may shall be filled according to the election process by the following candidate most voted by the council that was not elected to the executive committee. The person so appointed shall remain in office for the remaining period of office for the person whose position he/she takes over.
The Executive Committee shall have the power to co-opt onto the Committee individuals needed to undertake specific tasks (e.g. organisation of Congresses of the Association). The period of co-option shall extend only until the next elections are due for membership of the Executive Committee although the period can be extended by the Executive Committee if the task requires continuing attention. - The Executive Committee can appoint committees for certain purposes, for example for conferences, publications, exchange and educational programmes.
- The Executive Committee shall report its business and proceedings on the EACPT homepage and/or a scientific journal.
Conferences and meetings of the organs shall be called and conducted by the Chairman or, in the case of their being prevented from doing so, by the chairman-elect or past-chairman. - A meeting of the Executive Committee shall be called, if this is demanded by three Executive Committee members. If the majority of the Executive Committee members are present, this shall constitute a quorum and decisions shall be a majority vote. In the case of an equality of votes, then the vote of the chairman shall be decisive for the adoption/dismissal of the resolution.
- The assets of the Association shall be administered by the Executive Committee; in particular the supervision of the receipts and expenditures shall be the responsibility of the Treasurer. It must be ensured that the books be correctly kept and investments made. An audit of the books must be carried out annually by a certified accountant or a qualified auditor.
- The Executive Committee shall only be empowered to have the disposition of the assets of the Association within the framework of a budget adopted by the Council, in so far as it does not concern defrayal of running expenses and necessary expenditure.
- For the settlement of current business an executive secretary’s office shall be established, which shall be managed by the Secretary.
The Secretary shall:- maintain an actual member directory of the Association
- keep the records of all meetings of the Council and of the Executive Committee
- distribute the agenda for the meetings of the Council and the Executive Committee at least one month prior to the meeting, and shall distribute the minutes of the meetings not later than three months after the meeting
- collect and distribute information with reference to the objectives of the Association from and to member societies/sections and individual members (in accordance with item 6)
- The task of the treasurer is to render annually a complete financial account and submit a proposed budget to the Council
- The Association may nominate distinguished individuals to become an honorary president of the Association. They shall be proposed by the Executive Committee and ratified by the Council. The chairman of the organising committee of the Association’s major congresses shall normally become an honorary president immediately after that congress. The individual shall retain the title for life but shall only serve as a non-voting member of the Executive Committee, and have their name on the Association’s notepaper, for two years after becoming an honorary president.
Section 8 – The Council
- The Council shall be the senior organ of the Association. It shall consist of:
- The members of the Executive Committee
- The delegates of the member societies
- The Council shall be responsible for:
- the acceptance of the Executive Committee’s annual reports
- the election and approval of the Executive Committee
- the dismissal of Executive Committee members
- the approval of the budget resolved by the Executive Committee and presented by the Secretary and the fixing of the membership contributions
- alterations to the Statutes
- dissolution of the Association
- nomination of honorary members and presidents
- The delegates shall be nominated for a period of office of two years and may be re-nominated. Delegates who are nominated in the mid-term of the period of office shall only serve for the remainder of the two year period and must then be re-nominated.
- A Regular Meeting of the Council shall take place at least every two years. Additional meetings may be held at the recommendation of the Executive Committee. The meeting of the Council shall be called by the Executive Committee together with an announcement of the agenda under the leadership of the Chairman or Past-chairman. The period of notice shall be 30 days.
- An Extra-ordinary Meeting of the Council shall be called, if required in the interest of the Association, or should it be requested by at least four members of the Executive Committee, or a third of the delegates who have voting rights request this in writing, whilst advising of the purpose and the reasons. The resolution shall be directed to the Secretary, who shall pass it on without delay to the Executive Committee.
- Resolutions requiring a Meeting of the Council may be made by the organs and the members and must be submitted to the secretary at least six weeks before the Meeting. The Council shall decide by a simple majority vote about the admissibility of resolutions which are received later, and about urgent resolutions.
- Resolutions passed about alterations to the statutes or dissolution shall require a two thirds majority of the votes cast. Apart from this, resolutions shall be passed with a simple majority of the votes cast. An equality of votes shall count as dismissal. The members of the Executive Committee, the honorary members and every delegate shall each have one vote.
- The members shall constitute a quorum if the majority of the members are present. Should there not be a majority, then a new meeting shall be called within 14 days with the same agenda, which shall then constitute a quorum in any case. Attention shall be drawn to this invitation.
- A written record of the course of the meeting shall be prepared in every case by the Secretary.
Section 9 – Honorary Activity
All members of the organs of the Association exercise their activities in an honorary capacity.
Travelling expenses and day-to-day money incurred in the interest of the Association shall be reimbursed at the rate determined by the Executive Committee. For members that are especially in demand, an expense allowance may be resolved by the Executive Committee.
No person may be especially favoured by expenditures that are foreign to the purpose of the corporation or by disproportionately high remuneration or allowances.
Section 10 – Special Purpose Fund
To achieve the purposes scheduled in Section 2, insofar as a cash flow in excess of the expenditures is achieved, a special purpose fund is to be invested.
Section 11 – Dissolution
In the event of dissolution, the abolition of the Association, or in the event of the lapse of the previous purpose, then the entire existing funds shall be passed to the German Red Cross Society to be used for the promotion of the public health service.
Section 12 – By-Laws
These statutes shall be supplemented by the by-laws of the EACPT which have to be considered to have status character. The regulations described by the by-laws must not be in antipathy to the statutes of the EACPT. The EACPT Council shall have the power to initiate by-laws and to decide on any changes in the by-laws by virtue of simple majority of Council delegates voting, provided that a quorum has been reached.