The EPTO General Assembly took place online last Friday, 25 June. Due to COVID, the GA was held online. 

After being welcomed by the Chairman of the EPTO Board, Adrian Hristescu, the assembly proceeded to go through the agenda.

The four main items to be voted on included:

1. Approval of the Activity Report 2020
2. Approval of the Annual Accounts 2020
3. Approval of the Budget 2021
4. Approval of the extension of the current Board’s mandate by one year

We are happy to report that all items were unanimously approved. 

EPTO Manager, Cathy Del Rizzo, gave us an overview of EPTO’s activities for 2020, highlighting successes of the past year that included projects “PeaceJam - Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Mentoring Youth to Build an Inclusive Europe” and "PeerAct - Upscaling peer-to-peer anti-bias education for promoting common values" as well as projects led by member organisations such as “Peers for Integration” and “GIRLACT”.  

International Projects Officer, Dorothea Elek, updated the assembly on the projects that are currently running in 2021, including PeerAct and the launch of the project Peers for Equality - Creative Learning Platform led by Ofensiva Tinerilor with EPTO and EPTO member PAR among the project partners.

EPTO Treasurer, Gary Diderich, presented the Annual Accounts for 2020 and the Budget for 2021. Members congratulated both the board and Cathy for all their work in keeping EPTO activities in balance especially in this challenging past year. 

Maria Inês Santos from our member organisation PAR in Portugal commented:

I congratulate you on the amazing work, on the clear way of presenting the numbers and for the postive evolution that we are seeing in EPTO, it's amazing to see that year by year we are getting closer to the results we are hoping for.

Board Member, Sergiu Mir, shared updates on the changes in staff in 2020 and presented the proposal to extend the current board's mandate by another year. He encouraged members to think about the upcoming year and to please get in touch if they have any interest or questions in joining the board. The call for a new board will be out in September!

EPTO’s Communication & Community Engagement  Officer, Ela Suleymangil, presented the current membership situation and the roadmap for the coming year, with a priority of maintaining and strengthening the current network followed by expanding the network in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Greece. The ultimate goal: a strong, active, visible network of peer training organisations!

The following Member Organisations were present:

• Ofensiva Tinerilor, Romania
• OTI - Organizatia Tinerilor cu Initiativa, Romania
• Associação Par, Portugal
• 4motion, Luxembourg
• VCS - Volunteers centre Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
• Cirque et Arts en liberté asbl, Belgium
• Associazione Attiva-Mente, Italy
• Pomoc Deci, Serbia
• Humanitas, Slovenia (proxy)
• Youth Horizon, Georgia
• Generation Echo, Lithuania

We thank everyone again for participating in the GA and for all their passion, dedication and hard work in 2020. Despite the challenges the past year and half has presented to us, we know that together, we are stronger, and can support each other in working towards our vision.