War is against the very values on which the ESFS was founded. 50 years ago the ESFS was created during the Cold War to promote understanding between people of different racial, political and religious grounds. The recent military invasion of Ukraine by the government of Russia supported by the government of Belarus goes against everything that ESFS and European fandom stands for. This invasion is also directly responsible for preventing Ukrainian delegates from attending this year’s Eurocon.
In light of these unprecedented events, which are due to government decisions & actions, at the ESFS general meeting in Dudelange a motion was passed to allow the ESFS delegates to remove the delegate voting, award nomination rights and convention bids of countries. These rights were then removed from Russia and Belarus until the opening of the next general meeting of the ESFS in June 2023. This includes any votes of the ESFS until that general meeting, and the rights to nominate any people or works for the 2022 and 2023 ESFS Awards. This took effect immediately. Furthermore the Board and the Delegates stated that Russian and Belarusian fans remain part of the European science fiction community and ESFS members.
We look forward to Ukrainian fans being able to travel to Eurocon in 2023 and hope to share the joy of that event with all members of the ESFS family.
There was a change to the proposal put forward by the board, finalised and approved text is below
Proposal to Change ESFS Statutes – TO DISALLOW AWARD NOMINATIONS, BIDS, AND DELEGATES FROM A COUNTRY
Proposed by: Carolina Gomez Lagerlöf (ESFS Board)
Purpose: This amendment to the Constitution of the ESFS adds an additional section to define a mechanism by which, in exceptional circumstances, the ESFS will not accept ESFS Award nominations, Eurocon or Euroconference bids, or delegates, from a country.
addition:
Section 17: Disallowing nominations, bids & delegates from a country
ESFS will not accept ESFS Award nominations, Eurocon or Euroconference bids, or delegates, from the countries listed in Appendix 5. The addition of a country to Appendix 5 is by a 75% majority vote of the delegates at the general meeting and takes effect immediately. Countries in Appendix 5 are removed at the opening of the next general meeting, or by the simple majority decision of an Extraordinary General Meeting.