FEI General Assembly adopts new statutes

Gulf News, Dubai
By M. Satya Narayan, Staff Reporter

Abu Dhabi: The Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) adopted some new statutes at the General Assembly held in Estoril, Portugal, under the presidency of Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
The Statutes adopted at Sunday's FEI Extraordinary General Assembly highlight the FEI's purposes and objectives and reflect its core values and fundamental principles, according to an FEI press release.
These statutes comprise the FEI's constitution and put forward the organisation's attribution of powers, rights and responsibilities among its bodies and stakeholders - including the national federations, athletes, organising committees and the International Olympic Committee.
"Through the passing of the new Statutes and Internal Regulations, you have a framework for transparency and a road on which to move forward. You have approved the shedding of some of the archaic phraseology that limited our ability to be proactive ... and you have heralded a new era of better working practices that will make us more cost effective and more efficient," Princess Haya told the General Assembly on Monday.
More than 350 participants took part in the 2007 FEI General Assembly, hosted by the Portuguese Equestrian Federation with representation from 97 National Federations (NF). Three new NFs were affiliated - Albania (Group I), Cambodia (Group VIII) and Yemen (Group VII).
The UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation delegation was headed by Hussain Mohammad Hussain, Secretary General. The UAE belongs to Group VII in the FEI. Bahrain's Shaikh Khalid Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa was named the Group VII representative.
Agrentine rider Mercedes Tapia was named representative for Endurance in the newly-formed FEI Athletes Committee.
Swelling numbers
"Over the last nine years, the number of our member NF's has swelled to an impressive 140, compared to the number of National Olympic Committee's under the IOC - 203. Our events have grown from 446 in 1994 to 2,000 in 2006," Princess Haya said.
"We have begun addressing and answering the IOC's call for universality in all our disciplines. But more importantly, we are now able to respond to the National Federations who wish to become more active through the initiation of our Development Department. Our commercial department came to life in 2003 and has taken great strides towards making the FEI a self sufficient body in its own right," she said.