This year the ECHAMP Membership Assembly took place in Madrid, the capital of Spain. The city had put on fresh green with lots of blossom and welcomed the participants with pleasant warm weather and sunshine. Fortunately the air traffic problems eased in time for almost everyone to reach the venue without problems.

The event started in the evening of April 26 with a visit to the Homeopathic Hospital San José, the first Spanish homeopathic hospital, which was founded in 1878. After an intense renovation, it has just reopened and now hosts doctors’ consulting rooms, therapeutic practices, training and lecture halls and a small very specific and interesting museum. Besides homeopathy, the hospital offers a few other CAM therapies such as acupuncture. The day concluded with a dinner in the restaurant of the stadium Santiago Bernabéu, the home of the Real Madrid football team. Though no football game took place that evening, the view of the pitch was quite spectacular.

Tuesday 27 April was reserved for the Membership Assembly, this year chaired by Max Daege, former president of ECHAMP. In the morning the full, associated and corresponding members were informed about the various activities of the past year, with reports from all ECHAMP Working Parties and the public affairs consultant.

In the afternoon the full members voted 100% in favour of the application for membership of Alpen Pharma, a Bulgarian company, welcoming the new member to ECHAMP. ECHAMP now has 53 full, 10 associated and 14 corresponding members, including two new corresponding members who joined during the last year, the International Society of Homeotoxicology and Homeopathy (ISOHH) and the World Health Awareness Organisation (WHAO). The members are located in 18 Member States of the European Union.

As Poland will have the EU presidency in the second half of 2011, next year’s Membership Assembly will take place in Warsaw on 10 May. Max Daege was elected again as the chair for this event.

Christa Hebisch
ECHAMP Interim General Secretary