ENGSO General Assembly in Greece – practising member engagement and welcoming our new Executive Committee
The 31st edition of the ENGSO General Assembly took place on 12-13 May 2023, in Hersonissos, Crete, Greece. We thank ENGSO member organisation, the Hellenic Paralympic Committee, for hosting the event.
The highlight of the event was the re-election of the ENGSO President, by-election of a Vice President and election of six Executive Committee members for the period of 2023-2027.
- Stefan Bergh, Swedish Sports Confederation, (Sweden) has been re-elected as ENGSO President.
- Filipa Godinho, Portuguese Sports Confederation, (Portugal) became the new ENGSO Vice-President.
Six ExCom members for 2023-2027 were elected:
- Filip Filipic, Olympic Committee of Serbia, (Serbia)
- Romana Caput, Croatian Olympic Committee, (Croatia)
- Pierre-Louis Magnani, French National Olympic and Sports Committee, (France)
- Anna-Maria Wiesner, Sport Austria, (Austria)
- Theo Neyenhuis, Dutch Olympic Committee*Dutch Sports Federation, (Netherlands)
- Gyarfas Olah, Hungarian Competitive Sport Federation, (Hungary).
The newly elected members join Secretary-General Sara Massini, OPES Italia, (Italy) and Magnus Sverdrup, Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, (Norway) whose mandate runs until 2025, ENGSO Youth Chair Ugnė Chmeliauskaitė, Lithuanian Union of Sport Federations, and observer Sallie Barker, ENGSO, (Great Britain), Chair of the EWS Committee.
Before the General Assembly, the ENGSO EWS Committee gathered for a meeting, on Crete, to discuss activities foreseen for 2023.
The ENGSO General Assembly kicked off on Friday, 12 May 2023, with an EQUIP seminar, organised by the Hellenic Paralympic Committee and the ENGSO EWS Committee. The athletes Evanthia Bournia and Andreas Katsaros, and Sakis Kostaris shared their stories of empowerment through sport and presented the challenges and progress of the Paralympic movement in Greece.
The official opening took place in the afternoon with ENGSO President Stefan Bergh, Greek Deputy Minister of Sport Lefteris Avgenakis, Deputy Regional Governor of Crete Giorgos Pitsoulis and President Hellenic Paralympic Committee Georgios Kapellakis welcoming the participants to Crete, Greece, and expressing the support for the organised grassroots movement in Europe.
The event continued with the ENGSO Member seminar. The first part included a presentation of the report from the member survey 2022 and a workshop with ENGSO members to discuss andcollect feedback on the updated ENGSO Policy programme. Day one concluded with the Chair of EWS Committee Sallie Baker presenting the Position Paper on gender equality, and member of the EU Advisory Committee Julie Ravlo introducing the triple bottom line of sustainability in a presentation around the ENGSO White Paper on sustainability. Both documents had been approved by the ENGSO ExCom in April 2023.
Before heading into the ENGSO and ENGSO Youth General Assembly, ENGSO members could participate in the EU seminar which focused on crisis resilience and the Mobility of Staff in the field of Sport (KA1 of Erasmus+).
The General Assembly was held in the afternoon on Saturday, 13 May 2023, with the elections as the highlight. The event also included an overview of 2022 activities, reports and presentations from the Committees (ENGSO Youth, Equality Within Sport EWS Committee and EU Advisory Committee), followed by the presentation of the 2024-27 Strategy and the Policy programme.
During the assembly, we had the pleasure of officially declaring and welcoming the European Paralympic Committee as a new ENGSO associated member. We look forward towards a fruitful partnership and strengthening the parasport at the grassroots level in Europe.
Lastly, ENGSO equality and project officer Floriane Poncet Rief and ENGSO project officer Alessia De Iulis presented ongoing projects, the Portuguese Sports Confederation, Carlos Cardoso, Filipa Godingo and Anabela Sousa Vaz Dos Reis, introduced the European Sport Platform 2023 which will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, on 12-14 October 2023, and ENGSO Youth Chair Ugnė Chmeliauskaitė invited participants to join the first edition of the European Youth & Sport Platform taking place in Stockholm, Sweden, on 1-4 June 2023.
