EU Sport Forum 2017

EU Sport Forum 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

Erasmus+ SWAFE project Kick-off Staff Meeting

Erasmus+ SWAFE project Kick-off Staff Meeting

“Supporting Women Athletes from Europe” is an Erasmus+ project on the topic of gender equality, led by EU Athletes in partnership with three player associations: HPVPA (Greece), AJFSF (Spain) and WGPA (Ireland). The project aims to research into and improve the situation of professional and elite women athletes in Europe, particularly by working on the best ways that the player association can represent and provide adequate support for their female members. The project staff has met for the kick-of meeting in Madrid on 25-26th of January to define the work plan for upcoming activities. During the two busy days the project team focused mainly on the preparation of the survey that will be distributed to the athletes in three partner countries and to the athletes’ associations. Discussions also included the preparation for the Big Conference that will take place in Athens in June and will serve as an opportunity to discuss the results of the research as well exchange and present the best practices and ideas.