Faroese Confederation of Sports & Olympic Committee hosts the 2022 edition of ENGSO General Assembly
After two consecutive online assemblies, ENGSO members, partners and friends gathered in Torshavn, Faroe Islands, for the 30th edition of the ENGSO General Assembly which was organised and hosted by the Faroese Confederation of Sports and Olympic Committee, on 27-29 May, 2022.
On the same occasion, the Youth Assembly, ENGSO EU Seminar, Members seminar and EU Advisory Committee meeting were held.
The two day event began with welcome speeches from ENGSO President Stefan Bergh, the Prime Minister of Faroe Islands Bárður á Steig Nielsen, the president of Faroese Confederation of Sports and Olympic Committee Elin Heðinsdóttir Joensen and ENGSO Secretary General Sara Massini who officially opened the 2022 ENGSO General Assembly.
The educational part of the assembly started with a presentation of activities and good practices implemented by the sport movement at national level to recover from the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, with guest speakers Florencia Van Houdt, Head of Sport Unit at the European Commission, Francisca Araújo, Portuguese Football Federation, and Tomas Eriksson, Swedish Sports Confederation. It continued with a workshop on equality in sport, with a focus on the LGBTQI+ community. Sallie Barker, Chair of ENGSO EWS, Anne Schomöller, ENGSO researcher, and Sarah Townsend, co-president of EGLSF and member ENGSO EWS, discussed the action plan of ENGSO’s Equality Within Sport Committee (EWS) which in the coming year will work on and promote the new European Commission’s LGBTQI+ strategy 2020-2025.
Sara Massini, ENGSO Secretary General, opened day two with an introduction to the “HealthyLifestyle4all – The role of Sport organisations” session. The work and the output of the Erasmus+ Sport funded project SPIRIT were presented by Rachel May (ENGSO project manager), followed by a workshop on mental health and youth, led by ENGSO Youth’s Ugnė Chmeliauskaitė (chair), Filip Filipić (vice chair) and Polona Fonda (communication officer).
Definition and discussion on the European Sport Model was the closing workshop of the EU and Members seminar. Florencia Van Houdt, Head of Sport Unit at the European Commission, presented preliminary findings of the analysis on the European Sport Model study conducted by the European commission that is being finalised and will be presented in the coming weeks. On this basis, Sara Massini, ENGSO Secretary General, presented the position of ENGSO and led a discussion session, assessing the structure and intention of the European Sport Model among the participants of the GA and collecting feedback and suggestions to improve the position document.
The two day event concluded with the ENGSO General Assembly and Youth Assembly, held in parallel, presenting the work, activities and development accomplished in 2021, including invitation to attend the European Sport Platform 2022 that will be hosted in the Netherlands on 13-15 October 2022. The assembly was officially closed with an announcement that the 31st edition of the ENGSO General Assembly will be held in Crete, Greece, and hosted by the Hellenic Paralympic Committee.
ENGSO is particularly grateful for the outstanding effort that the host invested to plan and execute the ENGSO General Assembly 2022 – the Faroese Confederation of Sports & Olympic Committee and would like to express special gratitude and appreciation for a warm welcome and the support offered in strengthening grassroots sport in Europe.
