Nov 8, 2019
The event took part in Katowice, Poland on 5-7th of November and gathered around 1500 participants. The Conference and the accompanying meetings of WADA Executive Committee and the Foundation Board were an opportunity to approve the new International Standards as well as the 2021 World Anti Doping Code. Regarding the substantial changes, EU Athletes is pleased to see a new article 10.2.4 on Substance of Abuse, which is a step in the right direction regarding the health and welfare of players, an approach that player unions have been advocating for many years.
The new WADA President Witold Banka and vice-President Yang Yang were also officially appointed in Katowice to start their work in the new respective roles next year. Both Mr Bank and Ms Yang participated in the informal meeting with athlete representatives, including EU Athletes and World Players Association.
For Paulina Tomczyk, EU Athletes General Secretary: ‘We appreciate this approach and count for further dialogue as more work is needed in order to make sure that the anti-doping system is fair, proportionate and respects the rights of players. Athletes need to be able to take part in creation of the rules that affect them and importantly, to be represented by the people of their own chosing in that process.’
For further information, EU Athletes’ members common position on anti-doping can be found here.
Sep 9, 2019
Last week a meeting was organized in Warsaw, Poland, from the initiative of the future WADA President Witold Banka, to discuss athletes involvement in anti-doping. EU Athletes was invited alongside different athletes commissions and committees and was able to present the common views of our member player unions and athlete associations from around Europe. Our General Secretary Paulina Tomczyk underlined the right of athletes to be represented by their independent and democratic organizations as well as the need for a fair, proportionate and effective anti-doping which also respect the human rights of athletes. This initial discussion will be continued during the next meetings planned in Katowice, Poland in November 2019 and Lausanne, Switzerland.
Nov 9, 2017
The event organized by the Greek MEP Stelios Kouloglou has taken place in the European Parliament in Brussels on the 7th of November. The conference has gathered many interesting speakers including representatives from the European institutions, as well as the research and sport, in order to discuss the problem of corruption, match-fixing and doping. Our Policy Officer Paulina Tomczyk has taken part in the panel and had an opportunity to highligh the importance of good governance in sport, the role of athletes in reaching this goal and the issues related to the specificity and autonomy of sport in this context.
Mar 13, 2017
This event is the biggest gathering of stakeholders in the sport sector, with over 350 delegates from EU institutions, Member States, sport organizations and other NGOs participating. This edition was organized by the Maltese presidency on 8-9th of March in St. Julian’s. The main focus was put on grassroots sport, but a number of other issues and currents in the European sport sector, including sessions on good governance and anti-doping was also dealt with.
The Commission’s dedication to use the Forum to engage in a structured dialogue is appreciated, but it is hard to escape the impression that the Olympic movement seems to be a privileged entity claiming to represent sport on many occassions. A wider stakeholder representation and involvement would be more appropriate and surely would benefit the exchanges.
The EU Sport Forum included the networking area, which was a great initiative aiming to foster cooperation between different organizations and EU funded projects around topics of common interest. EU Athletes was there to represent our Erasmus+ Supporting Women Athletes From Europe (SWAFE) project in the “Women in Sport” theme.
More information on the event can be found on the European Commission website: http://ec.europa.eu/sport/events/201700127-eu-sport-forum_en
Nov 30, 2016
European Sport Ministers have met on 28-30th of November in Budapest, Hungary for a conference organised by the Council of Europe under its Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport. The main themes of the meeting were the anti-doping, promoting the Convention on match-fixing and good governance in sport. EU Athletes’ policy officer Paulina Tomczyk was there to present our position on anti-doping, with an empasizis on governance deficiencies, lack of appropriate athletes’ representation, neccessity to protect athletes’ rights, inefficiency of anti-doping programmes and need for more research in this field. More pictures and information about the conference can be consulted here: http://epas2016.hu/
