Council of Europe with its Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) in cooperation with the Greek Chairmanship of the council of Europe and the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport started the 16th edition of the Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport online today.

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the physical meetings initially foreseen to take place in Athens from November 4-6 have been cancelled. The new programme includes a few shorter events via video-conference, spread out over a longer period of time, to cover the key scheduled themes.



On November 5 the first parts of the event has been held, with the Opening session and introductory statements by Ms Marija Pejcinovic Buric, Secretary General of the Council of Europe and Mr Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece.

A leadership dialogue on championing values in sport followed, facilitated by Ms Snezana Samardzic-Markovic, Director General of Democracy at the Council of Europe, featuring Sport ministers of Greece and France, Director General of the International Olympic Committee, Secretary General of Global FIFPro and an Olympian, focusing on the covid-19 and importance of sports in general as well as on the topic of good governance, taking special notice on human rights and safeguarding of athletes.



The debates continued with the introduction of the European approach to sport policies, more specifically the revision of the European Sports Charter. Moderated by Ms Samardzic-Markovic and EPAS Secretary General Mr Stanislas Frossard, the panellists represented the sports movements from a viewpoint of national governments, local city authorities, sports organisations and business sector. Several aspects of the European Sports Charter and the European Sports Model were discussed by the panellists, and the floor was also given to several participants.

Apart from the EPAS Consultative Committee Chair Mr Kole Gjeloshaj (ISF), the discussions included also representatives of our partner organisations, including Secretary General of ENGSO Ms Kaisa Larjomaa, FISU President and Russian Sports Minister Mr Oleg Matytsin, sharing their experiences in the light of the current challenges with the epidemics, as well as the general viewpoints on the topic of the European Sports Charter.



Participants of the Conference and sports ministers, national and local government representatives, members of the Council of Europe & EPAS. European University Sports Association (EUSA) is taking part in the conference as bell, being a consultative committee member of EPAS. The conference will continue with three additional sessions, one in December and two in January.

For more information, please see https://www.coe.int/en/web/sport/msl16