New UMCE charter redefines micronations

Well, not really. But before we get into what the new charter is, we’ll look into why it is.

UMCE, or Union of Micronations of Central Europe, was first established on 23 March 2014 by the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Support, signed by the State of Moravia, the Noble Republic of Lurk and the Karamial Republic. This replaced previous Union of Micronations of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia, which existed between the three nations since 1 January of that year. UMCE operated similarily to the United Nations, led by the Security Council.

This system was replaced on 22 September 2014 by the Treaty of Establishment of the Union of Micronations of Central Europe. This treaty introduced modern system of the organisations, with the UMCE Council led by a Secretary, and multiple suborganisations. UMCE was defacto replaced by the Corona Confederation in 2015, however it’s channels were still used for discussions in that period. UMCE was revived in 2017, and on 7 November the Revision of Treaty of Establishment of UMCE was signed, establishing the modern Mekniyan-Radoslavian system for the organisation.

In February 2020, after a period of inactivity from his side, Naemal Namul-den resigned from his post as a secretary. The election for the new Secretary was won by the delegate for Gymnasium State, Tomáš Falešník. Under his first term, the issues of the revised treaty arose. Most notably, the treaty required over half of all delegates to support a motion, which proved impractical as many member states fell into inactivity. Another issue was that many changes to the revised treaty weren’t actually included in the treaty, which often led to confusion whether a provision of the treaty was still in effect.

After winning reelection in February 2021, Falešník began work on a new treaty, that would update the revision of 2017. On 28 March, he presented the draft of the Treaty of Funcioning of UMCE to be discussed by the member states. On the end of the session of 1 April, the treaty was put to a three week long vote, during which the member states were supposed to ratify the treaty themselves. The first nation to ratify the treaty and vote on the new treaty were the United States of Mekniy and Lurk, which did so on 2 April. By the time of the session on 24 April, all member states ratified the treaty, except for the Fyrinian Republic and Wiston Kingdom. After the former was expelled and the latter downgraded to observership for inactivity, the treaty entered force on 24 April 2021, at 20:26 CEST.

What does the new treaty contain, and how does it redefine micronations? The treaty in it’s first article defines a micronation as “[a] group of persons voluntarily and knowingly recognizing themselves as subjects of a defined system of government, and which legally considers itself as independent of sovereign states and other micronations”. This definition is however only “for UMCE purposes” and only defines which entities can get membership in the organisation. The treaty then goes on defining membership and observership in the organisation, UMCE Council, it’s session and proposals, the Secretary and it’s Deputy. The most significant differences from the old revised treaty is that the Council only needs support of more than a half of present delegates for passing motions, allows for delegation of suborganisations to different individuals, and establishes the UMCE Justice to oversee the fulfillment of the treaty.

Later on the session, UMCE also edited the Treaty of Incorporation of OUM into UMCE, proposed last year to the Organisation of United Micronation to merge the two Czech international organisations, to be compatible with the new treaty. Earlier today, the Secratary also appointed Naemal Namul-den and Jan Šťastný in charge of some of the suborganisations, and nominated Joel Novotný for UMCE Justice.

The full treaty can be read here.