====== Minutes of Meeting ======
**20th Meeting of the PPEU Council 31.01.2026, 10:00 CST**
Meeting is held physically in Ljubljana and online via Jitsi. The recording is available on YouTube at the following address: https://youtube.com/live/SJP91vutNmc
===== Participants =====
==== Members of the Board ====
* C: Florian
* VC: Sara
* T: Alessandro
* BM: Cal
* BM: Babak
* BM: Mili
==== International delegates ====
See the full list on Discourse: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/20th-council-meeting-registration-of-delegates/1901/13
==== Standing invitations ====
* Secretary General: Mab
* Secretariat team leaders: Bart, Fabio, Tom
==== Observers ====
* Pirate Party Potsdam
==== Guests ====
* Lylia
* Numero6
* Mia
===== Proceedings =====
==== General information ====
* Meeting opened at: **10:00 CET**
* Meeting chaired by: **Marco Confalonieri**
* Secretaries for this meeting: **Alessandro Ciofini**, **Florian Roussel** and **Sara Hjalmarsson**
* Rules of procedure adopted: https://wiki.ppeu.net/doku.php?id=ppeu:council:rules
* Meeting draft agenda: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/draft-agenda-for-the-20th-council-meeting/1912
==== 1. Meeting administration ====
Chair election: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-meeting-chair-election/1977
**Marco Confalonieri** has been elected as chair.
The chair nominates **Alessandro Ciofini**, **Florian Roussel** and **Sara Hjalmarsson** as minute takers.
Approval of the draft agenda: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-approval-of-the-agenda-20th-cm/1980
Drafted agenda has been approved.
==== 2. Organisational issues ====
=== 2a. Approval of new members ===
We have two requests. Ukrainian Pirate Community to join as Observer Member and PP-CAT to move from Ordinary to Observer member.
Florian speaks for the Ukranian pirates. Normally, the statutes require member organisations to be a political party, but exceptions can be made in exceptional or special circumstances. Currently, Ukraine is at war and political activity is suspended, but as soon as the war is over, they will return to the political fight. This fulfills the requirements for an exceptional/special circumstance. There are no doubts about their alignment with the pirate values.
The Ukranian pirates were unanimously accepted as observer members.
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-ukrainian-pirate-community-to-join-as-observer-member/1982
Admission is approved.
Exile is now speaking for PP-CAT telling that they're not in the position right now to have a proper political activity so they prefer to move to Observer
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-ppcat-becomes-observer-member/1986
The request has been approved: PPCAT is now Observer Member.
=== 2b. Statutes update ===
The vote for the change of statutes was moved to the current meeting because quorum was not met at the previous council meeting. The changes are due to new legislation. They clarify elements that are needed for compliance with the new law. The board will collate the new changes and translate the statutes into French and the French document will be submitted [to the authorities].
Marco opens the floor for questions. No questions were fielded.
Topic here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/2-b-statutes-update-proposal-discussion-thread/1921
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-statutes-update-proposal/1987
The updates to the statutes were approved.
==== 3. Reports and discharge ====
=== 3a. Board report 2025 ===
Topic: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/3-a-2025-board-activity-report-discussion-thread/1923
Florian is now talking on behalf of the board summarising 2025 board activities
=== 3b. Annual account 2025 ===
Topic: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/3-b-2025-annual-accounts-discussion-thread/1924
Alessandro summarises the annual account.
=== 3c. Code of Conduct Council Report ===
No report provided. No member of the council present.
=== 3d. Discharge of the 2025 (10th) Board (& Lay Auditor Report) ===
Marco (as lay auditor) provides a verbal report. He asked the treasurer to change some donations to in-kind donations. We may need the help of a professional accountant to help us ensure compliance as we adapt to the new law. The law requires more details, such as what the transaction was for and what.
The registered headquarters must also have more documents, including the list of members [].
Alessandro explains the reason for the €62 donation. This amount was donated by Alessandro personally because the PPEU bank account was frozen because some details could not be provided.
We should also use a local accountant to ensure our documents are legal and correct, so there are no issues when submitting them to the Luxembourg business [].
Vote here for 2025 annual account approval: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-2025-annual-accounts-approval/1988
The 2025 annual account was unanimously approved.
Vote here for discharge: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-10th-board-discharge/1989
The board was unanimously discharged.
==== 4. 2026 Budget and Work Plan ====
=== 4a. 2026 Work Plan ===
Plan here https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/4-a-2026-work-plan-discussion-thread/1926
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-2026-work-plan-approval/1990
The work plan was approved.
=== 4b. 2026 Budget ===
Topic: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/4-b-2026-budget-discussion-thread/1927
Alessandro talked about the board's vision for 2026. The board has not been spending all of its money, so the new budget is less conservative than previous years.
Paul asked how we would like to spend the budget in 2026.
The majority of the new allocation goes to the outreach team and events. This is because it will increase our visibility and our opportunities for getting donations. This has been difficult in previous years, but the secretariat now makes it possible for the first time. The money needs to be spent to help us move forward.
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-2026-budget-approval/1991
The budget was approved.
==== 5. Elections of the European Pirate Party Board ====
=== 5a. Chair ===
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-11th-board-chairperson/1992
**Florian Roussel** was elected as chair.
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**The meeting has been suspended at 11:45 CET. It will continue after the Slovenian event and lunch break at 14:00 CET.**
**Meeting is now opened back at 14:10 CET.**
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=== 5b. Vice chairs ===
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-11th-board-vice-chairpersons/1994
**Marietta Le** (18 votes) and **Paul Diegel** (12 votes) were elected as Vice Chairs (2)
=== 5c. Treasurer ===
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-11th-board-treasurer/1995
**Alessandro Ciofini** was elected as treasurer
=== 5d. Ordinary Board Members ===
A discussion regarding the relationship between PPCZ and PPEU was pushed to AOB.
Vote here: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-11th-board-board-members/1996
**Giuseppe Calandra**, **Nathalie Ylitalo**, **Natalie Nanninga-Doriga**, **Petr Kadlec** and **Matěj Bělohoub** were elected as ordinary board members.
==== 6. Elections of the Code of Conduct Council ====
There were no candidates nominated, so no members were elected.
==== 7. Election of Lay Auditors ====
Marco is now passing the chair to Florian because he is a candidate for this position.
=== 7a. Number of lay auditors ===
The council is now voting on the total numbers of lay auditors.
Vote: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-lay-auditors-positions-opening-20th-cm/1997
The council voted to have 2 lay auditors.
=== 7b. Election of lay auditors ===
Vote: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-lay-auditor-election-20th-cm/1998
**Marco Confalonieri** and **Yves Schiltz** were elected as lay auditors.
Florian returned the chair to Marco.
==== 8. Other motions ====
=== 8a. Solidarity with the Iranian Freedom Movement and Against Selective Censorship in Digital Rights Advocacy ===
Marco asked Babak to introduce the motion.
Francois proposes the counterproposal to postpone the vote so that the PPEU council has an opportunity to phrase the statement in a way that all PPEU members can support it.
Florian proposes the following motion text:
The Council mandates Babak to draft a motion to be resubmitted to the Council Members and Board, for examination and adoption at the next Council Meeting.
Vote: https://discourse.european-pirateparty.eu/t/vote-solidarity-with-the-iranian-freedom-movement-and-against-selective-censorship-in-digital-rights-advocacy/1999
The counterproposal was approved. Babak is mandated to draft a motion to be resubmitted to the Council Members and Board, for examination and adoption at the next Council Meeting.
==== 9. Any other business ====
No Czech pirates were present, so it was not possible to address the topic that had been brought up earlier in the meeting.
==== 10. Final greetings ====
Thank you to all for attending.
Thank you to all former board members and welcome to the new ones. There is a lot of work to do, but we will be fighting for what we believe in.
**The 20th council meeting is closed at 16:45 CET (15:45 UTC)**.
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//Marco Confalonieri// (Chair of the 20th Council Meeting)