The EGF used to have a tradition to disallow those countries from voting at
the AGM, who did not paid their membership fee. Unfortunately, this
tradition has become somehow forgotten in the past years.  If I remember
correctly, last year 14 EGF members did not fully pay their membership fee.
I am aware of one single country (there may be more), who were granted to
pay a reduced fee by the EGF board, but, according to the General Secretary,
the majority of the non-paying countries just did not pay even the minimum
membership fee of 200€.  In other words, there were many EGF members
eligible to vote at the AGM although they did not pay their full fee.

While Germany are completely in favour of the 'developing country rule' to
allow the EGF board to reduce the membership fee for individual EGF members
with respect to their economic situation, we do not consider just-not-paying
as appropriate.  This completely contradicts the spirit of the original
agreement.

Therefore, in order to enforce the collection of the membership fees as
agreed by the EGF, Germany propose to enforce the existing rules in the
following way.

1) By 31 January of each year, every EGF member -- also the ones who wish
to apply to pay a reduced fee -- have to report the number of their regular
members and their youth members.  EGF members who fail to do so are treated
as having 1,000 regular members.  (The General Secretary or treasurer of
the EGF may want to send out reminders in due time.)

2) Based on the reported number and the valid EGF membership fee (1€ per
regular member, 50c per youth member), each EGF member is assigned a debit.

3) If an EGF members wants to take advantage of the 'developing country
rule' they may apply for a reduction of their fee to the EGF board by end of
February in writing, explaining their reasons (email is sufficient).  The
application as well as the written decision of the board will be provided to
all EGF members on request and at the AGM.  If the request gets approved by
the EGF board, the EGF member's account is updated accordingly with the
agreed debit of the reduced fee.

4) If an EGF member applies for a reduction of the membership for three
consecutive years they need to present their case to the AGM before they can
get a further reduction in the fourth year.

5) EGF members who fail to pay their appropriate membership fee by 31 March
are debited with an appropriate penalty fee.

6) Only EGF members whose debits (including penalties) are cleared have the
right to vote at the AGM.

7) If an EGF member does not clear their account, the debit remains open
until it will be paid.  Potentially it will stay up to the following years.

8) EGF members, who have not cleared their accounts once within three years'
time, will be expelled from the EGF.