LJUBLJANA – ENGSO, the European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation, organised its annual Forum in Strasbourg, France on 21 and 22 October, 2013. Participants – member federations and partner organisations – came from over 20 countries. European University Sports Association (EUSA) was represented at the Forum by Mr Matjaz Pecovnik, Secretary General and Mr Andrej Pisl, Communications Manager.
The Forum started with the Welcome and Opening addresses by Mrs Birgitta Kervinen, ENGSO President and Mrs Maria Ochoa, Director of Human Rights and Discrimination at the Council of Europe. Update on EU Sport Policy and Erasmus+ programme was presented by Mr Pedro Velazquez, Deputy Head of the Sport Unit at the European Commission, while Mrs Heather Stewart from the EPAS Secretariat at the Council of Europe presented an update on the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS).
Matjaz Pecovnik & Andrej Pisl
After the opening parts and first plenary part, the Forum focused on a series of interesting presentations and examples of good practice from the field of Good Governance in Sport and Integrity of Sport. Among several different aspects of the two topics, the participants also had the chance to practically assess their own organisations and Contribute to the discussions.
While the first part of the Forum was held at the Council of Europe’s European Youth Center in Strasbourg, the final panel discussion was held at the European Parliament. The final panel discussion focused on the future EU Sport Policy, also in the light of the upcoming elections to the European Parliament. The panel was moderated by ENGSO President Mrs Kervinen and hosted by Mrs Emma McClarkin, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the United Kingdom, with participation of Mr Morten Lokkegaard, MEP from Denmark and Mr Hannu Takkula, MEP from Finland. Apart from ENGSO Forum’s participants, the final session was attended also by some other members of the parliament and a few interested others.
ENGSO Forum was a good occasion to discuss the possibilities of strengthening the cooperation between EUSA and ENGSO, especially since the past projects of joint cooperation with their youth section – ENGSO Youth (namely the European Anti-Doping Initiative and Prevention of Sexualised Violence in Sport) were very successful. At the same time, EUSA representatives took the opportunity to present the organisation and its activities, with special focus on the upcoming 2nd edition of the European Universities Games in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2014.
(Source: EUSA)