Section 1: Approval requirements.

The associations referred to in article L. 1114-1 may be approved if they can prove that, for the three years preceding the application for approval, they have been effectively and publicly active in defending the rights of patients and users of the healthcare system and that they operate in accordance with their articles of association. The association’s effective and public activity is assessed in particular with regard to the actions…

The training activities referred to in article L. 1114-1 are in particular those that the association carries out for its members. They are assessed with regard to their nature, number, frequency and the resources devoted to them. The information activities referred to in the same article are assessed by taking into account, in particular, the production and distribution of publications and the holding of information meetings and office hours. In…

The association’s representativeness is attested by a sufficient number of individually paid-up members, having regard to the public for whom the association is intended and the territorial scope of its activities. Failing this, the association is considered to be representative if it can prove that it has a large audience among the people it intends to represent or defend. In the case of unions of associations, account is taken of…

The association’s articles of association, funding and organisational and operating conditions must not be such as to limit its independence. In particular, the association’s independence must be guaranteed in relation to health professionals, health establishments, health services and organisations in which individual acts of prevention, diagnosis or care are carried out, as well as producers, operators and suppliers of health products. The association must also offer sufficient guarantees with regard…