Upon the invitation of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, European University Sports Association (EUSA) attended the European Union Structural Dialogue on Sport, which took place on May 19, 2015 in Brussels within the framework of Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council Meeting.

The structure dialogue provided opportunity to the leading representatives of the European Union’s public authorities and sport movement to exchange views and best practices on actual sport issues in the European Union, focusing on Physical Activity as an essential element of quality education at all levels – cooperation models with sport sector.

The invited guests were firstly welcomed by Ms Marite Seile, Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia. The floor was after given to the representatives of the sports organisations, invited on the meeting.



In his speech, Mr Matjaz Pecovnik, EUSA Secretary General, presented the structure and activities of EUSA and its member federations. He after presented the main challenges in university sport. “The role of university sport; especially its social and educational component, is unfortunately still being underestimated”, stressed EUSA Secretary General and after presented the activities of EUSA to further develop the university sport in Europe, focusing on EUSA Development Program, European Universities Games and other  dedicated projects. Mr Pecovnik concluded by calling the representatives of EU and member states to raise the awareness on the importance of the university sport, to support various initiatives and projects in this field and to support the activities and functioning of EUSA and its member federations.

Beside EUSA, a few other organisations were invited on the meeting and also participated in the debate: European Olympic Committees, European Volleyball Confederation, European Physical Education Association, FIBA Europe and International Floorball Federation.



Mr Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, and the representatives of Member States present on the meeting also addressed the participants. Following the meeting the ministers of the European Union Member States in charge of sports were informed on the outcome of the discussions and had the same debate during the council meeting.



After the meeting, EUSA Secretary General discussed with the President of the European Volleyball Confederation Mr Andre Meyer the possibilities for mutual cooperation between EUSA and CEV.