The Executive Committee of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) has approved this Wednesday to end the limitation of two terms of the president of the employers’ association, as EL MUNDO had announced fifteen days ago and business sources have confirmed to this medium today.

In a closed-door meeting, the CEOE management has carried out an internal consultation to propose a change to the Statutes that allows the elimination of the limitation of two terms for the president. The proposal has not been voted on, but the employers that make up the CEOE have been able to express their opinion. Officially, it has only had one vote against AMETIC, the technology employers’ association, and the abstention of the Business Federation of Spanish Pharmacists (FEFE); but different organizations have expressed their doubts about the impact that the change may have on the reputation of employers, as this medium has learned.

Others have recently changed their statutes to adapt them to nationals (limiting the president’s terms to two), with which they have been upset that this reform is now carried out at the national level. Foment del Traball, the Catalan employers’ association that contested Garamendi for the presidency, is not in favor but does not want to vote against so as not to portray itself once again at the antipodes of the management in Madrid; while other regional organizations have admitted that there were discrepancies internally, but that they would accept the change for the good of the organization. Many have agreed, however, that it is not positive for employers to be constantly “in the spotlight.”

The CEOE has explained to this newspaper that the Executive Committee has raised the proposal to modify the Statutes to the General Assembly and that this body will be in charge of ratifying it on July 19, something that will happen with complete certainty, according to internal sources.

The current leader of the organization, Antonio Garamendi, is precisely in his second and for now last term after being re-elected with more than 80% support in the last Electoral Assembly of the CEOE, held on November 23. “I want to change the statutes on several points, including the elimination of the term limit, because organizations ask me to do so and to unify criteria,” since “in various CEOE organizations there is no such term limit,” Garamendi explained to this outlet. make your intention known.

If the change in the statutes is ratified in the General Assembly so as not to limit the terms to two, Garamendi could continue directing the organization for a few more years, as long as he decides to stand for the next elections, which should be held in November 2026, something that It is not very clear: “It is not something that I should answer now, I will make the decision at the time after consulting my family and the businessmen. It will be what the organization wants,” he told this newspaper when breaking the news.

According to Europa Press, already before the elections last November, voices arose within the employers’ association asking for a statutory modification on the electoral process and the limitation to two terms.

The CEOE established this ceiling in April 2014, with Juan Rosell being the president of the organization. Rosell, who began to lead the employers’ association in 2010, complied with the limit established then in the Statutes and left the Presidency in 2018, after two terms.

The Basque businessman Antonio Garamendi took over from Rosell and assumed the CEOE Presidency in 2018, being elected for a second term in 2022.

Before the arrival of Rosell and Garamendi, the CEOE had three other presidents whose mandate was not limited: Carlos Ferrer Salat, José María Cuevas and Gerardo Díaz Ferrán. Of them, the one who was at the controls of the business organization the longest was José María Cuevas, no less than 23 years.

The proposal to reform the Statutes of the employer to eliminate the current limitation of mandates must go through the Internal Regime Commission and the Committee and the Board of Directors and be subsequently approved in the General Assembly, according to sources from the business organization.

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