EHF takes part at EU Sport Forum 2019

The 2019 edition of the EU Sport Forum was held in Bucharest, Romania on 8 and 9 April 2019. The two-day event gathered more than 400 participants from different sports organisations as well as the EU member states, local authorities and academics.

EHF President Michael Wiederer took part in the event which had a wide range of topics on the agenda and some of them were directly related to the EHF’s field of activities. Over the course of the forum, topics such as doping in sport and the role of sports federations in the promotion of European sport were covered during the plenary sessions; the Forum also attempted to answer questions such as “Are sports rights protected enough in the EU?” and “Are rights and interests of athletes sufficiently taken into account by sports governing bodies?”.

The topic on athletes’ rights and interests was presented for the first time at the EU Sport Forum and was granted a panel session where representatives of various players’ associations addressed the problems professional athletes are facing during their careers.

Some of the topics discussed during this session covered the labour rights of athletes, social dialogue, and athlete representation as a whole. Like many other sports federations, the EHF is very interested in this important topic and during the EU Sport Forum, athletes got a chance to explain their situation to many leading officials from sports federations.

The EU Sport Forum also provided ample opportunity to connect with the leading staff of other sports federations and EU organisations. During the event, the EHF President talked with key figures such as Janez Kocijančić, EOC President, Yves Le Lostecque, head of the Sport Unit at European Commission, Maxime Cotis, CFO Rugby Europe, Brian Agerback, Secretary General of Badminton Europe, Ivan Miljković, General Manager of Volleyball Professional Club Association, Mykola Mochan, Deputy Miniter for European Integration (UKR), Thorsten Endres, CEV Managing Director and Renato Arena, CEV Senior Vice President/FIVB Executive Vice president, Francesco Ricci Bitti, President of Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, and Folker Hellmund, Director of EOC EU Office.

The event also gave the EHF President the opportunity to speak with the leadership of Romanian sport. In addition, the EHF President also met with the president of Romanian Handball Federation, Alexandru Dedu where they discussed the potential new venue in Bucharest, applications for future Women’s EUROs and many other handballrelated topics.