The conference on Integrity in Sport

The conference on Integrity in Sport was held on 7-8 December 2021 and organised by the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) of the Council of Europe and the Italian department for Sport within the framework of the Italian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 

The conference took place in Rome, Italy, and in hybrid format.

 

The objective of the conference was to define and plan the actions to be implemented by EPAS, the Macolin Committee and their partners on the following three themes:

 
  • Integrity guidelines
  • Manipulation of sports competitions
  • Good governance in sport

 

The conference hosted sports ministries, anti-corruption authorities, foreign affairs departments, law enforcement bodies, national data protection officers, sport integrity agencies, justice sector and sport NGOs.

 
 
 

The main discussion point of the first session was the completion of EPAS’s Guidelines on Integrity in Sport which were developed within the framework of the Kazan Action Plan. The following 5 elements will contribute to improving integrity in sport;

 
  • Preserving the rights, safety and security of athletes, spectators, workers and other groups involved;
  • Preventing and addressing harassment and abuse in sport;
  • Fostering good governance of sport organisation;
  • Strengthening measures against the manipulation of sports competitions;
  • Ensuring an adequate anti-doping policy framework, its implementation and effective compliance measures.
  • Macolin convention was the highlight of the second session, entitled manipulation of sport competitions. The aim of the Macolin convention is to fight against the manipulation of sports competitions at international level. Two main goals (of the convention) are the implementation and to improvement in the number of countries joining and supporting the initiative. The main discussion of this session was about the tools that are needed to train the stakeholders on data protection in the fight against manipulation. The participants also discussed how international data transfers can be facilitated.
 

The last session was about the good governance in sport. ENGSO is involved with the Task Force 3 – an ambitious and comprehensive benchmark of the highest level for sports governance that is recognised both by the international sports movement and governments, and applicable at international and national levels. This benchmark was approved in 2020 and focuses on five areas: transparency, integrity, development and solidarity, control system and democracy. The exchange and the discussion in this session were about communicating and promoting the IPACS benchmark and increasing the engagement and involvement of organisations and governments in the implementation of the integrity guidelines.