The European Parliamentary Group Hearing on Youth and Volunteering was held at the European Parliament’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday 9 February 2012, with active participation of the European University Sports Association (EUSA).

 

The hearing was opened by Mr Marco Scurria, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Rapporteur on the European Year of Volunteering 2011 and Mrs Doris Pack, Chairwoman of the Culture and Education Committee.

 

The hearing was divided into three sessions, chaired by Members of the European Parliament and CULT Committee. The first session was on State of play - achievements and added value, chaired by Mr Milan Zver; followed by the session on Volunteering and Citizenship, chaired by Mrs Sabine Verheyen; and session on European policies for youth, including sport, chaired by Mr Georgios Papanikolau.

 

In the session on sport, the speakers were Mr Alberto Gualtieri, President of the European University Sports Association and Mr Guy Taylor, General Secretary of the European Athlete as Student Network.

 

Mr Gualtieri briefly introduced EUSA, its activities and its role within Europe. In his speech, he presented the challenges due to various differences between countries and the common grounds on the basis of which these challenges can be met. He stressed that the role of university sport has a huge importance in promoting European values, in particularly respect, solidarity, coexistence; and offering training. He emphasised that European structures and activities in the field already exist and that this is the place for recognition and growth, balancing EU directives and autonomy of member states.

 

Mr Gualtieri concluded his speech by pointing out the potential of university sport and offering some recommendations to the European institutions - to adopt measures to recognise and promote university sport and interlink sport for youth with education; as well as universities - to see sport not just a recreational activity and to acknowledge sport as key driving force.

 

Following the speech of Mr Gualtieri and Mr Taylor, an interesting debate with the participants was held. Ms Hester de Vries, International Officer in the Dutch Students Sports Association and member of the Organising Committee of the 2nd European Universities Games 2014, was especially interested to hear about the possibilities of financing projects by the European institutions.

 

The hearing closed with the summary of the presentations and debates by Mr Pascal Lejeune, Head of Youth in Action Unit in DG Education and Culture and Mr Marco Scurria.

 

 

Participation of EUSA in the hearing shows great recognition to the organisation, its work and achievements and also involvement in European projects with other partners, like European Anti-Doping Initiative and the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Sport.