Report of By-Laws Committee (BLC)

P. Moutard (FR), Chair


1. BLC meetings and the topics discussed during these meetings

Since the C 82 Council meeting 3 BLC meetings took place, on 6 July, 7 September and 25 October 2017. The Chair of the Disciplinary Committee joined the meeting of 7 July by phone and participated to the meeting of 7 September 2017.

The main following topics were discussed during these meetings:

  • amendments of the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Committees, further to the decisions of the C82 Council meeting in Munich; the question of possible incompatibilities between certain committees or bodies of the epi was also discussed;
  • further amendments to the article 18 BL, also further to C 82;
  • creation of a recommendation collecting the list of conditions decided by the Council for certain committees;
  • proposal from the internal auditors to amend Art.20 BL;
  • proposal to amend Art.15.4 BL in view of an earlier sending of a summary and a list of the decisions to the epi members after each Council meeting.

We make here below a short presentation of the state of these different topics.

2. Amendments of the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Committees, further to the decisions of the Council (C 82 Council meeting in Munich);

The Terms of Reference of the following committees were amended: By-Laws Committee, Online Communication Committee, Professional Education Committee, Professional Conduct Committee, European Patent Practice Committee, epi-Finances Committee.

To avoid conflicting situations between some committees or bodies the BLC has examined whether rules of mutual exclusion should be added to the Terms of Reference of some Committees. For example it could proposed that the members of the epi finances committee cannot be at the same time member of the Board. The status of all epi Committees and bodies were checked accordingly and this topic is still under discussion. Corresponding proposals for amending the Terms of Reference of some committees will be presented to the 84th Council meeting in La Valette (C84).

3. Further amendments to art.18 BL.

This article, which in particular defines the duties of the committee members, was extensively discussed with Mr Paul Rosenich, Chair of the DC, to better take into account the particularities of this Committee.

First discussions were conducted on 6 July and continued during the meeting of 7 September. Final formal amendments were adopted during the meeting of 25 October.

The text of the proposed art.18 was adopted by the Council in Warsaw (C83).

4. Recommendation collecting the list of conditions decided by the Council for certain Committees

This list of recommendations was created based on the work of the Reporting Group presented during the Munich Council meeting C 82. It will be included in the Collection of Decisions.

5. Proposal from the Internal Auditors to amend Art.20 BL.

In order to improve the efficiency of their work, the Internal Auditors have proposed some amendments to art. 20 BL.

The text of the proposed art. 20 will be presented to the 84th Council meeting for decision in La Valette for decision.

6. Proposal to amend Art.15.4 BL in view of an earlier sending of the draft minutes to the Council members.

After each council meeting it is very difficult, if not impossible, to send as soon as convenient to all epi members a summary of the unapproved minutes and a list of the Council decisions (art. 15.4 BL).

The BLC has discussed this problem and drafted several proposals which will probably be presented to the 84th Council meeting in La Valette for decision.