The Meeting was chaired by the President of EMH, João de Almeida
—–The Chairman opened the Meeting of the General Assembly of the EMH at 11:00 local time
—– The Chairman thanked all the Members for their participation, whether physically
present or remotely and represented by proxies. He mentioned that one expected
participant, Thomas Hoppe, a longstanding member of EMH had suddenly died very
recently, and several tributes were paid by those present. An obituary will follow on the
website.
- Verification of the technical conditions required for the hybrid holding of the
Meeting
Three members participated online via the Zoom link distributed to all members together with the letter convening the Meeting. Once the sound and image tests had been carried out, it was concluded that the Member Representatives were able to follow and participate in the proceedings. - Verification of powers of representation [Article 11 (2), EMH Statutes]
—– According to the Attendance List (Annex 1), 12 members were present or represented. - . Admission of new EMH Members [Article 5 (2), EMH Statutes]
—–The membership application submitted by Asociación Española Barcos de Época y Clásicos (AEBEC), from Spain, was unanimously accepted.
Filling of Executive Board vacancies
—–One new member was proposed: Kjartan Fonstelien was elected unanimously. - Activity Report 2025 presented by the DMB
—–The Chairman, João de Almeida, reported on the activities carried out during 2025:
Regrettably, only one new membership was recorded in 2025, limiting our ability to
broaden our reach and increase diversity within our organisation. While our Statutes now allow multiple members per country, the potential benefits of this reform have yet to materialise in practice.
There had been a request for help with a Spanish 1841 sailing vessel, Rafael Verdera, to permit it to maintain a longstanding mooring base in Palma, Majorca. A letter in support of the historic vessel had been sent to the Balearic harbour authorities.
From the standpoint of communication and external visibility, progress remained very limited, but. our current corporate website has been relaunched this week, and it shows an enormous room for enhancement regarding the desirable regular contents updates, to engage with stakeholders, prospective members, and the wider public interested in maritime heritage.
Finally, the financial situation of EMH remains extremely fragile. Limited funding continues to constrain our operational and strategic ambitions, including the ability to strengthen the Secretariat and invest in basic communication and development tools.
The activity report 2025 was approved without dissent. - Financial Report 2025
The Treasurer, Lars Palm presented the Financial Report 2025 emphasising the need to expand the membership to collect more membership fees to reach the level of income that existed with the previous membership fees. Apart from payments for the website, there had been minimal other expenditure (there had been no budget plan for the year) and our current bank balance was €7619,44, with no additional reserves. Membership subscription income for next year was again predicted to be about €8000.
The Financial Report 2025 was unanimously approved. - Approval of Proposed Amendments to Article 2(a) and Article 5 of the EMH
Statutes
Modification of Article 2(a) and Article 5 para. 2; Addition of new Article 5, para. 3 and renumbering of the current paras. 3 and 4]
Draft wording of Article 2 (a): “To defend the cause of maritime cultural heritage and its role as an essential and dynamic component of the identity of Europe and its sustainable development.”.
Draft wording of Article 5, paragraph 2: “Applications for membership shall be submitted using a standardised application form approved by the Executive Board. Upon receipt of the application, the Executive Board shall issue a preliminary opinion within 30 days. If the opinion is favourable, the Executive Board notifies all members by email, giving them a period of 15 days to object. After this period, the Executive Board takes a final decision within 15 days. The decision is communicated to the applicant by email and, if approved, published on the EMH website.”.
Draft wording of Article 5, paragraph 3 (new): “If any Member raises an objection within the 15-day period referred to in the previous paragraph, the application for membership shall be discussed at the next General Assembly by majority vote.”
The above proposals, which had been approved at the General Assembly held in Helsingor on 29 th March 2025, were unanimously confirmed. The Executive Board was urged to implement this change to the statutes without further delay, including its notarisation and registry with the KvK - Closing down of the EMH Stiftung (Stiftung Maritimes Erbe Europa)
The charitable foundation set up by EMH under German legislation had been inactive for several years, and the Executiver Board of EMH had been advised by Jan-Matthias Westermann (the Executive Director of the Foundation) that the simplest outcome to avoid future tax and other liabilities was to wind it up forthwith and use residual funds for this purpose. There were no representatives of the Trustees present, and after some discussion it was agreed to ask Mr Westermann to carry this out forthwith.
In addition, the General Assembly mandated the Executive Board to take all necessary steps and measures to ensure the process of winding up the Foundation is carried out. - Any Other Business
The floor was opened for discussion. The EMH Memorandum of Understanding committee was currently chaired in Sweden, and there had been recent new applications to join as signatories from flag states including Poland and Baltic states. It was felt that a meeting of the committee should be held to consider these applications and other matters, and Lars Palm would get in touch with Gustav, the Chairman, to see what could be organised.
The Executive Board was encouraged to take these suggestions for discussion and
implementation where possible.
Scott Pereira, Secretary 25-03-2026
Following the formal meeting, there was a working lunch for attendees, followed by
two seminars – covered elsewhere in this newsletter – for all members and visitors :
-Traditional Ships under ES-TRIN Hendrik Boland
– Accidents in the Traditional Fleet- lessons learned Paul van Ommen
At 4pm there was a reception with drinks and snacks
All who attended the General Assembly were grateful to our local organiser, Paul
van Ommen for setting up the venue and communications and for the (free) hospitality.
