ENGSO at the the 17th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport
Antalya, Turkey, 25-27 October 2022 – ENGSO Office Director Marie Denitton represented ENGSO at the 17th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport, also through her role as newly elected Gender Equality Rapporteur of the EPAS Consultative Committee
The conference, held on 25-27 October 2022, opened on Tuesday with several parallel events, including the meeting of the EPAS Consultative Committee Bureau. Marie Denitton joined the meeting as the newly elected Gender Equality Rapporteur of the EPAS Consultative Committee. As such, she will ensure that the Gender Equality dimension is considered in the work of the Committee. ENGSO is a longtime member of the EPAS Consultative Committee with a role to represent and advocate for the European grassroots sport.
The highlight of a three-day event was the 17th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport which was held on Wednesday, 26 October 2022. With high-level speakers and representatives of the sport movement, the main themes of the conference were “Sport for all: uniting us for stronger societies” which revolved around gender equality, inclusion and sport for children and “Rethinking Sport” focussing on emerging challenges, access to sport and boosting participation. Read more about the programme.
The Ministers for Sport acknowledge in their Resolution on the topic “Sport for all: uniting us for stronger societies” that “European values face challenges such as armed conflicts, pandemics, climate change, social inequality and risks to democracy and diversity in the digital age” and that sport can be the means to uphold these values and ideals and drive societal change.
The conference concluded on Thursday with representatives of sports organisations, NGOs and humanitarian institutions discussing the inclusion of migrants and refugees through sport.
As a side event, the extraordinary plenary meeting of the EPAS Consultative Committee took place, acting as a working session to follow-up on the 2021 diversity conference.
About EPAS
The Council of Europe Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) acts as a platform for intergovernmental sports co-operation. Besides the co-operation of public authorities of member states it also encourages dialogue between public authorities, sports federations and NGOs.
EPAS is involved in many different projects and initiatives ranging from child safeguarding to gender equality and integrity but also draws up policies and recommendations that are then adopted by the Committee of Ministers across continental Europe. The latest publication of that kind was the revised European Sports Charter.
EPAS consists of three bodies, the Governing Board, the Consultative Committee and the Statutory Committee with the overall aim to contribute to improved governance and making sport more ethical, inclusive and safer.
The Consultative Committee is the only one that does not consist of political actors. Members are appointed by the Governing Board and are sports organisations, NGOs and international organisations. In their role as members of the Consultative Committee, these organisations can comment on the programme of activities and provide advice for decisions of the Governing Board. ENGSO is one of those appointed members to the Consultative Committee and can provide the perspective and needs of grassroots sport to the dialogue.
Marie Denitton was elected Gender Equality Rapporteur of the EPAS Consultative Committee in October 2022. Besides the 17th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport, her first event under the new role will be the training programme for Gender Equality Rapporteurs which will take place on 29-30 November in Strasbourg.
The partners will now proceed with the selection of the participants and work to further refine the educational curriculum and the programme of the training course to take place in February 2023, in Portugal.