EEN Charter

I

Following the 2019 Brussels and the 2022 Zagreb European and North American Encyclopedia Conference, the participants — representatives of editorial boards and/or respective publishers (hereafter: Initiators) — decided to establish the European Encyclopedia Network (henceforth: EEN).

II

The mission of the EEN is to enable its members to share experiences about the current state and functioning model of encyclopedias, to identify possible areas of improvement and collaboration and to contribute to the role of encyclopedias in providing access to reliable, verified and findable information of general interest as well as to their role in the preservation of national and cultural identity, especially in regard to a constantly growing amount of information from various, often unreliable sources, and to seek financial and technical sustainability of projects.

III

In general, members communicate freely by usual digital means: official mailing list, closed discussion groups, data cloud system etc. If possible, a live conference is organized every year, in addition to regular online meetings. Every member is free to propose common EEN activities, including joint public statements and declarations, according to procedure as described in Paragraph VI.

IV

The EEN is presided over by a chairman, with the help of two vice-chairmen. They represent the EEN, supervise editing of the
EEN website and digital social networks, organizing conferences and meetings, as well as other common activities. They are responsible for the implementation and dissemination of joint public statements and declarations, according to procedure as described in paragraph VI.

V

Although most of the Initiators represent professional, free access general type encyclopedias in national languages and from the territory of Europe, these are by no means necessary conditions. Every encyclopedia (lexicon, dictionary etc.) i.e. its editorial board or publisher could be admitted to membership if it is decided that it would be an asset for the EEN mission, as stated in Paragraph II, and according to procedure described in Paragraph VI.

VI

The chairman and vice-chairmen are elected for a four-year term, they are elected with a simple majority of given votes. The voting is public, the representatives can be re-elected multiple times, and also relieved during the term, but only with an absolute majority of given votes.

In order for a common activity to be accepted, including joint public statements and declarations, a qualified two-thirds majority of given votes must be attained.

In order for a new member to be admitted, such a proposal must attain a two-third majority of votes of all members. If this condition is not met, the voting may be recast after one year, admittance requiring a two-thirds majority of given votes.

In order for a member to be excluded, such a proposal must attain a two-thirds majority of votes of all members.

VII

The voting on every subject mentioned in Paragraph VI is held during annual live conferences (if no other agreement is reached) or is processed via the means of communication mentioned in Paragraph III. All proposals have to be shared at least seven days before the voting day, the voting process ending at midnight.

Notwithstanding the registered number and factual participation of members from any given representative, each representative constitutes one vote.

Accepted on March 20, 2023