Bodies

60^th ENGSO Executive Committee Meeting

was held in Budapest, October 26 & 29, 2006.

SUMMARY REPORT

ENGSO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 60^th SESSION

Budapest (Hungary), October 26 & 29, 2006

On the occasion of the 9^th ENGSO Forum held in Budapest, October 27-29, 2006, ENGSO Executive Committee held its 60^th Session in the capital of Hungary, Budapest.

The host of the 60^th ENGSO ExCom and ENGSO Forum was the Hungarian Sports Confederation that has done its utmost to have everything run smoothly and that all is arranged in the very best way, from the welcome at the airport and transfer to the Forum to the accompanying social events.

Members of the ExCom approved the following

AGENDA

1.                   Opening of the Meeting

2.                   Approval of the Agenda

3.                   Minutes of the 59^th ENGSO ExCom Meeting in Faeroe Islands

4.                   ENGSO Forum 2006 in Budapest, October 27-29, 2006

Programme – Lecturers – Responsibilities

5.                   Reports from:

a.       Feasibility Study Meeting, September 11, 2006

b.       Consultation Conference with Jan Figel, September 20, 2006

c.CoE Conference “Play Fair with Sport”, September 29, 2006

d.       EFPM Conference

e.       SPRINT Meeting in Ljubljana and European Sport for All Congress in Portoroz, October 12-15, 2006

6.                   Report from the European Youth Sport Forum in Pajulahti, September 26-30

7.                   Report from the Ministerial Meeting in Moscow, October 20-22

8.                   ENGSO EU Working Group – Reconstruction and Meetings

9.                   Miscellaneous

10.                Future Meetings up to the General Assembly in Helsinki

11.                Closing

* * * * * *

DECISIONS AND PROPOSALS

Ø        The proposals for agenda and programme of the ENGSO ExCom were approved by the members, just as the Minutes of the previous 59^th edition of ExCom. As the ExCom was held on the day prior to the Forum and the day after it, ExCom members able to were assess the results of the Forum, since it was marked as one of the milestones in the development of the new strategy of ENGSO.

Ø        ExCom confirmed the programme of the Forum and discussed it, item by item, distributing the tasks and the way that each of the topic will be presented. The participants were to receive a full and detailed programme of the event, including speakers and social events.

Ø        The reports from conferences in which ENGSO was represented were of great importance underlying the role of ENGSO:

o        The Feasibility Study Meeting showed there were three options for the sport to be represented within the Council of Europe – through a reformed CDDS, an Enlarged Partial Agreement for Sports (EPAS), or none. Some countries showed interest in having a reformed CDDS, but the EPAS was given the highest priority.

o         The Consultation Conference organized on October 20^th, by the EU Commission and Commissioner Jan Figel in which Sevelius and Wainig represented ENGSO discussed the position of sport, to better anchor sport as an issue, to achieve greater legal security for sports organisations as well as to define more clearly sport’s specificities and values. The White Paper on Sport, planned for during 2007, was welcomed and the stakeholders did see the need to deal with certain economic aspects of sport at European level. In connection with the Independent European Sports Review, the Arnaut Report was criticized as sport, complicated and manifold as it is, cannot be reduced to simple definitions or to one sport only (football), nor to its commercial aspect. The ENGSO President stressed that the so-called “Arnaut Report”, in his opinion, did not represent the entire European Sports Movement – its diversity, the manifold aspect and the broadness! He meant that the report, with its strong football and commercial profile could perhaps be representative for the biggest teams sports.

Furthermore, he said that he agreed upon the main aims put forward, namely to safeguard the autonomy of sports, to stress the authority of the governing sport bodies within their own sport, and to authorize the governing sport bodies as the counterparts to the EU Commission in matters affecting them.

Kai Holm, IOC and EOC representative, criticised the over-emphasis of commercial aspects, as the Arnaut Report did not represent sport as a whole, and should therefore not be taken into consideration.

President Sevelius emphasized that it is necessary to find a way for a common platform for acting between ENGSO and EOC

o        The CoE Conference “Play Fair with Sport”, in which Wainig took part, showed that the gap between different sports is getting bigger and that solidarity is needed on all levels. The topics discussed were “Building an Alliance between Politics and Sport”, “Good Governance in Sports” and “Future Cooperation in the Field of Sport”.

o        EFPM Conference in which Cardoso represented ENGSO came out with national reports, but no action plan. In discussing the future relations with EFPM it was underlined that the Fair-Play has to be the key point and crucial part of each sport and thus EFPM should be a movement that regards values primarily.

o        President Sevelius represented ENGSO in a meeting of the so-called SPRINT countries in Ljubljana, October 11-12, concerning the development of sport and the future of the Council of Europe.

o        President Sevelius also reported from the “1^st European Sport For All Congress”, held in Portoroz, Slovenia, October 12-15, and organized by ISCA and CESS.

Ø        European Youth and Sport Forum, organized in Pajulahti, September 26-30, was a huge success, lively and active, as President Sevelius and Vice-President Kervinen reported, concentrating on issues of youth activities and leadership, environment, health and equality. ENGSO Youth participated equally in organization of the Forum. ExCom concluded that ENGSO Youth should have its own Conference in order to emphasize the importance of sports youth and their role in Europe in connection with the ENGSO GA, in May 2007.

Ø        President Sevelius gave the report from the Council of Europe Ministerial Conference in Moscow, October 20-21, where he and Vice-President took part, and he presented the contribution he made on behalf of ENGSO through his intervention there. In his speech he stressed once again the need of a functioning Pan-European forum dedicated to sport in its broadest sense, for the purpose of GO and NGO co-operation on European level. Such a Forum has to be given high priority for all countries of Europe not only EU countries.

Ø        EU WG has had its seminar during the Forum presenting the standpoints of European Commission, Unit for Sports, EOC and ENGSO. It was decided that an information letter, with the latest development and the time-table according to the activities related to the White Paper is to be distributed to the ENGSO members, including practical suggestions for further action on both national and international levels.

Ø        ExCom Members concluded that the EDG day during the Forum proved to be an education platform, important for the steps to be taken until the General Assembly in 2007. Since the Assembly will also be an electoral one, it was important to arrive at proper solutions in finding right persons for the ExCom. As it was decided during the 58^th ExCom held in Helsinki, all documents related to the election procedure and requirements will be posted on the website for the ENGSO members to consider nominating candidates. It was decided as well, that the ExCom together with the President are to be in charge of the election and the procedure for nomination and election. Following the regular procedure referred to in the Statutes, the nominations should be received before March 21, 2007.

Ø        Throughout the discussions held during the Forum, EDG received an important feedback and will create a new version of the draft report to start a new process in terms of May and the ENGSO GA. The final version, to be translated into French, German and Russian, will hopefully be ready for the end of January, and submitted to the ExCom for further consideration. An Open Reference Group meeting, to be held in Bratislava, February 3-4, has also to take into account that if there are to be any Statutes modifications, they should be submitted before March 21, 2007, to be in time for the GA in Helsinki. The new version will also be posted on the website.

Ø        Treasurer Wainig presented to the members the Financial Report, stating that the membership fees were still due by Belorussia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel and Macedonia, and that additional effort should be made to contact these members and request from them payment as due by all members. ExCom members adopted the present situation in the budget as submitted.

Ø        It was decided that the following ENGSO meetings to be held are:

o           ENGSO Youth Committee – December 1-3, 2006 - Stockholm

o           ExCom – January 19-21, 2007 – Sesimbra

o           ENGSO ENTER! – January 27-28, 2007 – Paris

o           EDG “Open Reference Group Meeting”– February 3-4, 2007 – Bratislava

o           EU WG – End of January or beginning of February, 2007 – Belgium NOC, Brussels

o           EDG – Beginning of March, 2007 – yet to be decided

o           ExCom – March 9-11, 2007 – Prague

o           ENGSO Youth – May 2-6, 2007 – Helsinki (before and during GA)

o           ExCom – May 3-6, 2007 – Helsinki (before and after GA)

o           EU WG – May 4, 2007 – Helsinki 

o           EDG – May 4-6, 2007 – Helsinki

o           ENGSO GA – May 4-5, 2007 – Helsinki

o           ENGSO Forum – September 14-16, 2007 – Faeroe Islands

Ø        Other meetings where ENGSO representatives should take part in until the end of the year, are to be:

o           Sports Ministers Meeting – November 28 – Brussels

o           Ministerial Health Conference (Plenary Session) – November 16-17 – Istanbul as inter-sectoral meeting of 4 Ministries in charge of health, sports, education and environment

o           Global Forum for Sports and Environment, November 30, December 1, 2006

o           EOC General Assembly – December 8-9 – Brussels

o           TAFISA World Forum – December 14-16 – Frankfurt

Ø        ExCom members expressed their gratitude to the Hungarian Sports Confederation and all those from the Confederation who have shown once again great hospitality of Hungarian Sports and the excellent conditions provided for the work of the ExCom and the Forum in Budapest.