NEWS

On March 18, 2025, the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) invited European sports stakeholders at the European Parliament to contribute to a consultative meeting on the role of the EU policies in shaping the European Sport Model.

Member of the European Parliament Bogdan Zdrojewski, Vice-Chair of the CULT Committee and rapporteur of the initiative, welcomed the participants, followed by presentation by Iwona Lotysz (Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union) Giorgio Guazzugli-Marini (Acting Head of Sport Unit at the European Commission), and Roberto Pella, (European Committee of the Regions, rapporteur of the opinion on “Building a values-based, bottom-up European sports model: a vehicle for encouraging inclusion and social wellbeing among young Europeans).

Overall, 40 stakeholders participated in the event, with 20 of them providing short speeches in contribution to the European sports policies. Laura Capranica, EAS President, highlighted the importance of European ERASMUS+Sport fundings for cooperative partnerships focused on the sportspersons’ rights to education in and through sports. She highlighted that whilst Europe has been considered a good model and inspiration for countries beyond Europe (recently, a dual career association has been established in Brazil following the EAS example), the tremendous outcomes of the ERASMUS+Sport projects do not always reach the target population at large. To bridge such a gap and to have a positive impact especially in the future generations of athletes, coaches, physical trainers, referees, sports managers, sports scholars, and volunteers, President Capranica suggested the adoption of European policies urging the sport academic institutions and the sport bodies to include relevant European priorities (such as dual career, sport inclusion, sport integrity, safeguarding, etc) in their educational courses.

In relation to the claims made by other stakeholders on the lack of accurate and reliable data to help the interpretation of the European sport phenomenon and its possible evolution in different sectors, President Capranica recommended that the European sport policies finally enforce the inclusion of sport in the in the European Research Area, To assist the European sport culture, President Capranica strongly encouraged European policies ensuring the right of citizenship of sports in the European Research Council (ERC) by finally mentioning active lifestyles, physical activity and sports in the ERC codes and by including experts of sports sciences in the European Scientific Committee.

Following this event, the European Parliament’s own-initiative report will gather the input from the stakeholders by March 31^, 2025 in preparation of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the European Union (EU).

The event was also an opportunity for EAS to promote its ongoing ERASMUS+Sport projects in cooperation with other stakeholders, such as EUSA Institute.