On 23 March, EuropeActive participated as an observer in the eighth meeting of the European Commission Expert Group on Green Sport. The group is composed of EU Member State experts and representatives of the European sport movement who are working together to issue a series recommendations in the areas of sport infrastructure, events, good practices, innovative solutions, and the sport movement’s contribution to the European Climate Pact.
The meeting started with an update on the Framework for Green Sport in Europe from KEA European Affairs, the external editorial team hired by the European Commission to carry out its drafting. KEA provided participants with a sneak peek at the structure of the report, its proposed scope and key topics.
The meeting continued with some interesting presentations on environmentally sustainable sport practices across Europe. First, Jana Janotova from the Czech Olympic Committee, introduced the results of the Erasmus+ co-funded project “As Sustainable As Possible” (ASAP), whose ambition was to create and implement integrated sustainability strategies in the 6 participating National Olympic Committees, using a mentoring approach. Then, Jamie Cornacchia, Communications Coordinator at “We Play Green”, presented this initiative, which is an independent and non-profit global football movement established by the professional footballer Morten Thorsby, with the purpose to mobilise the global football ecosystem to support the green transition. The German organisation “Zukunft Fahrrad”, which advocates for cycling for the “sustainable mobility turnaround” followed with convincing inputs from its managing director Wasilis von Rauch on cycling’s potential contributions towards the objectives of the Green Deal.
The meeting ended with an update from the European Commission on key dates for the sports sector in 2023. The next meeting of the Expert Group on Green Sport will take place in June 2023.
Recently, EuropeActive also took part in the 7th meeting of the European Commission Expert Group on strengthening the recovery and the crisis resilience of the sport sector during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19, which emphasised the importance of drawing lessons from the pandemic and making recommendations to be better prepared when future crises strike.