The European Gymnastics Executive Committee confirmed last month it was considering the postponement of the Congress, including the Presidential election, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Congress is currently scheduled to take place in Albufeira from December 4 to 6 next year.

Postponing the election would see Farid Gayibov’s term as president extended by a further year.

This would mirror the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), whose President Morinari Watanabe's term as President was extended by a year after the worldwide body rescheduled its Congress for October 29 to 31 in 2021.

European Gymnastics say the postponement of the FIG Congress has had "important repercussions" on the continental body’s own meeting.

The virtual Extraordinary General Assembly could see the European Gymnastics Congress postponed to either April or December in 2022.

"According to our statutes, proposals and candidatures for our General Assembly have to be submitted five months before the beginning of the Assembly," European Gymnastics wrote in their invitation for the virtual meeting.

"This means, our member federations do not yet know who of their candidates will be elected at FIG at the point time when they have to submit candidatures for the European Gymnastics Elections.

"In addition to that our member federations might prefer to know the outcome of decisions at the FIG Congress to submit proposals for the European Gymnastics General Assembly."

A majority of two-thirds will be required to pass the motion to postponed the Congress and electoral General Assembly, which would also see the elected officials serve a shorter three year term from 2022 to 2025.

The two-thirds majority is required due to the vote temporarily overruling European Gymnastics own statutes.

Should the proposal be accepted, a vote will be held on whether to reschedule the Congress for April 22 and 23 or December 2 to 3 in 2022.

A simple majority will be required to define the new dates.

The term of office for the newly elected officials would start on April 24 or December 4 in 2022, depending on which dates are chosen.

European Gymnastics claimed it had consulted a Swiss lawyer over the proposal to postpone the Congress and electoral General Assembly to 2022.

The lawyer reportedly submitted a legal note with the conclusion that this postponement is possible according to Swiss law and due to the extraordinary circumstances following many changes in the calendar of international sport events caused by the Covid19 pandemic.

The Swiss company GVI SA are set to oversee the virtual General Assembly, with European Gymnastics promising they offer a secure and anonymous virtual voting system.

GVI SA were used at the European Gymnastics General Assembly during 2019 in Sofia for the E-voting system, which FIG also used at their recent Congresses.