EuropeActive News

As a result of the consultation process with main stakeholders of the fitness and physical activity sector, EuropeActive outlined its overall priorities and corresponding work programme for 2020 – 2021. The strategy paper, first published in spring, defined how the association would deliver information and assistance for our sector to effectively operate through COVID-19, reopening, and help the sector adapt to the post-C19 scenario.

EuropeActive’s vision is to be the leading European voice for the fitness and physical activity sector to get more people, more active, more often. We aim to achieve this vision by arranging key industry events to share ideas and to help inspire better business and entrepreneurship. After FIBO announced that they will not run as a live event as hoped, but as an all-digital event for 2020, we have adapted our plans around these now-virtual FIBO days.

After a series of very successful webinars the EuropeActive team has come together to create a new way of sharing information and inspiration from September 2020 onwards: a podcast. Titled the Active Podcast, there will be new episodes once every two weeks. The podcast will be available for members only, though the first introductory episode has been launched today and is accessible to all.

EuropeActive will launch the special e-learning package for operators and managers of fitness clubs to follow in September. The scheme is based on the new CEN European Standards for fitness facilities (EN17229 : 2019) The intention is for the new European standard to become the benchmark for all fitness clubs and for them to be used to improve business and confidence with members and users.

EuropeActive is recognised by the EU Commission as one of the most active partners of the European Week of Sport - #BeActive Campaign since its first edition in 2015. Last year the Week’s 28K events took place in 42 countries involving 15 million Europeans. The week takes place from 23 – 30 September. Read all about this year’s initiatives from EuropeActive below.

EuropeActive is very much looking forward to welcoming our national associations partners to the 2nd European Fitness Associations Forum (EFAF) in Cologne, Germany, on Thursday October 1st.

Will the COVID-19 crisis be looked upon in the future as just a “hick-up” in the growth curve of fitness in Europe or will it be a serious roadblock in achieving EuropeActive's ambitions of 80 million members of Health & Fitness centres by 2025 and 100 million by 2030?

A major new agreement on national representation has been signed between the three main fitness organisations in Poland. The Polish Fitness Federation (PFF), Fitness Employer’s Federation (FPF) and Polish Association of Personal Trainers (PZTP) have come together in an historic union to cooperate in representing the Polish fitness industry and have already been recognised as National Association partner of EuropeActive.

The special European Fitness Association Forum (EFAF), the 8th of the series, took place on Tuesday 30th June with focus on future cooperation and collaboration between EuropeActive and its 23 national and trade associations.

The EuropeActive EU Affairs team has attended several online events in the last few weeks on relevant topics covering Skills and Education and Health Enhancing Physical Activity policy areas. From the CEN 136 WG2 Fitness Centres meeting earlier this month, moving into the EU Commission Sport Unit Policy Breakfast, and ending up with the Expert Group on Skills and Human Resources guidelines, EuropeActive has activity promoted the great work that has been done so far during these challenging times.