June 2021
On June 3, 2021, Kole Gjeloshaj (Chair of the Consultative Committee dell’EPAS – Council of Europe and Deputy Secretary General of ISF) chaired the webinar “Checking criminal records as a tool to protect children in sport”, which examined how to prevent sexual abuse in sport by implementing safe recruitment processes of people who work with children. As a member of the Consultative Committee Bureau, the President of EAS moderated the high-level panel encompassing Elda Moreno (Head of Children’s Rights and Sport Values Department of the Council of Europe), Melanie LANG (Senior Lecturer in child protection in sport, Centre for Child Protection and Safeguarding in Sport at the Edge Hill University, United Kingdom), Vivien RIMMER (Head of Safeguarding, Rugby Football Union, United Kingdom), Håvard B. ØVREGÅRD (Adviser, Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, Norway), Richard FEWKES (National Coordinator Non-Recent Child Sexual Abuse, NPCC – Operation Hydrant, UK), Anton Toni Klancnik and Cathal Delaney (EUROPOL – European Cyber Crime Centre) and Dieter Braekeveld & Uri Sadeh (INTERPOL).
Further information on the webinar and its conclusions are available at https://rm.coe.int/43-conclusions-cc-webinar-criminal-checks-14062021/1680a2dcb7
On June 15, and 16 June 2021, the annual joint meeting of the EPAS Governing Board and the Consultative Committee was held online to discuss the EPAS programme of activities. The new elected members of the EPAS Governing Board are Alexandre Husting (Chair, Luxembourg), Andrea Carletti (Vice-Chair, Italy) Alexey Morozov (Region 1, Russian Federation), François Tricarico (Region 2, Belgium), Viktoria Slavkova (Region 3, Bulgaria), Kolë Gjeloshaj (Representative of the Consultative Committee, ISF) and Tone Jagodic (Representative of the Consultative Committee, EOC). During the meeting, the revised European Sports Charter was approved to be transmitted to the Committee of Ministers for possible adoption during the next fall.
Further information on the meeting is available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/sport/-/2021-annual-meeting-of-the-epas-governing-board-and-consultative-committee
The virtual EU Sport Forum 2021 ‘Towards a healthier, resilient and sustainable European sport’ was held on June 8 and 9. More than 500 participants attended the presentations and workshops and interacted in surveys on the different topics addressed during the sessions.
Ms Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, opened the event, followed by the speeches of Mr Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee; Mr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, Portuguese Minister of Education; and Mr Tomasz Frankowski, MEP and Co-Chair of the Sport Group of the European Parliament.
The first day included the plenary session on ’How can sport be environmentally friendly?’, two workshops ‘Ready, steady, go. Off the blocks for a new start!’, and ‘The impact of COVID-19 on coaches and athletes: challenges’ and the ‘Update on the new Erasmus+ Programme by the European Commission’.
The second day started with the welcome of the Commissioner Ms Mariya Gabriel to the first plenary session ‘A healthy lifestyle for all – teaming up to achieve it’, which was followed by two workshops ‘How can sport and physical activity better contribute to a healthier society?‘ and ‘#BeEqual: How to move towards more gender balance in the sport sector?’ At the end of the event, Commissioner Ms Mariya Gabriel offered the concluding remarks.
The programme and the video recordings of the event are available at:
Dual Career of Student- AthLetes with disabilities as a tool for Social Inclusion: The PARA-LIMITS project (PCS-OPS-SE-1-0202-1-PPE-312226)
The EU-funded Collaborative Partnership PARA-LIMITS addresses the promotion of dual career of disabled athletes and their social inclusion opportunities, which is a Dual Career priority rarely addressed. To provide a systematic solution for the challenges of conciliating sporting career and university studies of disabled athletes, a solid basis will be scientific research and information collected on dual career for athletes with disabilities.
On June 16 the University of Rome “Foro Italico” hosted a PARA-LIMITS webinar on the state of art of the barriers, difficulties and organisation that athletes with disabilities face in undertaking their Dual Career in five Member States (Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain).
The video of the event is available at: https://youtu.be/ADOeHqHnin4
To disseminate the outcomes of the EU Collaborative Partnership “More Than Gold’ (603346-EPP-1-2018-1-LV-SPO-SCP)”, the fourth EAS Virtual Cafè attracted around 50 European dual career experts.
Raluca Mihaela Onose, lecturer at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romanian Partner of the More than Gold Project, moderated the contributions of Nuno Laurentino and Paolo Bouquet. They presented the vision and organization of dual career in Portugal and Italy, respectively.
As a former Olympic swimmer in 1996 and 2000, Vice-President of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, and member of the Olympic Athletes’ Commission, Mr Laurentino is currently Deputy of the Secretary of State for Youth and Sport, which strongly supports a dual career in Portugal. He illustrated the origin, evolution and successful outcomes of the dual career at the Portuguese high school level, which represents a recognized best practice also at the international level. Mr Laurentino also presented the new challenges to enhance dual career paths at the university level, necessary to meet the recent national law supporting dual career at tertiary education.
Prof. Paolo Bouquet illustrated the three-level dual career programme at the Italian University of Trento, which considers sports as an opportunity for the academic community at large. In particular, this university will be involved in the 2026 winter Olympics, which represent a tremendous chance for the development of the whole region and innovative approaches in and through sports. In this vein, the University of Trento organized the Italian network of universities interested in sports issues. Specific to dual career, the official website of the UNISPORT Italia allows student-athletes to filter according to their expectations and needs the dual-career programmes offered at Italian higher institutions.
Towards the end of the event, the 18th EAS Annual Conference to be held face-to-face in Lisbon next September 20-23, 2021, was presented and participants were invited to submit abstracts on dual career activities.
THE 2021 EAS CAFè will come back In the fall term.
Bengt Nybelius, together with Risto Keskitalo, the founder of the European Athlete as Student Network (EAS), was a brilliant mind, who settled the objectives and the structure of the organisation in 2004. He passed away in 2011, and EAS decided to establish a scholarship to carry on the legacy of his work. Therefore, we are happy to announce the Call for Paper of the “2021 Bengt Nybelius Scholarship”
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu