European Everyday Sport Conference Report

Last week, on 29th and 30th September 2017, an international conference titled “European Everday of Sport” had been held at the premises of House of Europe in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event was a final phase of the Erasmus+ project (572647-EPP-1-2016-1-BG-SPO-SCP) of the same name which has an aim to promote the European Week of Sports among European citizens with a special focus on young people. More than 120 experts in the field of sports, education, health, and youth from 11 different countries took part in the two-day conference together with representatives of media.

The first day had a number of distinguished speakers with Mr Ognyan Zlatev, Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria opening the conference. The event had a truly international outlook with project partners from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia taking part in the discussions. Other distinguished guests included Mrs Vania Koleva, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport, Mrs Monika Panayotova, Bulgarian Deputy Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Mrs Yordanka Petrova, Parliamentary Secretary of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science and Ms Ioanna Dochevska, President of the Bulgarian Sports Development Association which had organised the event. The participants were welcomed to the conference by a video-message from H.E. Tibor Navrascics, the European Commissoner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. Other conference panelists were also Mrs Antoaneta Angelova – Krasteva, Director for Innovation, International cooperation & Sport of European Commission's DGEAC and Prof. Dr. Tatyana Yancheva, Deputy Rector of the National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski”. The conference guests united around the message of cross-sector approach as key to raising healthy lifestyles of the European citizens.

Mrs Viera Kerpanova from the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) introduced the participants to the opportunities provided by the Erasmus+ Sport Program and the participants found out more about the best practices implemented in Bulgaria from Mr Yassen Spasov, Head of Youth Activities at the Human Resources Development Centre which is an Erasmus+ national agency in Bulgaria.

Mrs Victoria Slavkova from the Directorate for the European programmes, projects and international cooperation of the Bulgarian Ministry of Youth and Sport presented the activities implemented by the Ministry in relation o the European Week of Sport 2015 and 2016. This panel had been concluded by a presentation from Mr Tarik Ajanović, volunteer at the Bulgarian Sports Development Association from the European Voluntary Service programme who presented some good practices from the European Everyday of Sport project as well as guidelines on how to use the newly-created project platform.

The final panel of the first day of the conference had consisted of presentations from Mr Roberto Salinas from Italy and Lilla Nedeczky from Hungary who are also partners in the European Everyday of Sport project. They presented their findings and experiences in the field of integration through sport and the development of voluntary activities in the education system. Policymakers and experts from Bulgaria and abroad had the opportunity to exchange views on how to raise participation in sport and physical activity of European citizens.
Good practices and campaigns which had been realised in the field of sport were presented on the second day of the event including projects such as the European anti-doping initiative “Just Sport”. Talking about this project, Mrs Verica Mance from Croatia shared interesting information on the use of prohibited substances and how that affects human health and sports in general. Dr. Stefka Djobova from the National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski” presented the results of the “Get Wet” project which focuses on activating citizens to take up water sports as a form of physical activity. The participants of the conference also had an opportunity to discuss the poster session where five studies by sports specialists from Bulgaria and abroad were presented as well as to learn more about the physical activity of paneurythmy by Lyudmila Chervencova from the National Sports Academy. The final presenter was Mr Ott Pärna, the chairman of SCULT – World Sport Volunteers Movement, who presented ideas and opportunities to improve sport through higher participation in volunteering activities in sport.

With the conclusion of panels session at the second day of the conference on 30th of September, the participants had an opportunity to take part in a mini athletics event for children that welcomed 140 young athletes aged 5 to 12 and showed them the magic of sport. The young athletes were awarded medals at the end by Prof. Dr. Pencho Geshev, the rector of the National Sports Academy “Vassil Levski” which was the institution that hosted the event. Other medals were also awarded by Prof. Dr. Apostol Slavchev, Deputy Rector, Prof. Dr. Stefan Stoykov, Head of the Athletics Department and Theresa Marinova, the Olympic champion and teacher at the Academy. The whole sports event had been organised by Ivailo Lazarov, a lecturer at the Athletics Department of the National Sports Academy and a coach at Athletics Club of the Academy (CLASS). Young participants also had a chance to meet Mirela Demireva, silver medalist at the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

The whole conference had been broadcast live on Facebook and the recorded sessions can be accessed on the website of the Bulgarian Sports Development Association.

Bulgarian partners of this event are The Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Bulgarian National Television as its main media partner.

Full information available on the following link: www.eusport.org/everyday_sport_conference

Preliminary program: www.eusport.org/everyday_sport_conference/program

Conference working language: English

Conference publication: Collection of reports (ISBN: 978-619-90776-1-0)

Full information for the EU Everyday of Sport Project: www.eusport.org

Good Practices for Physical Activity #BeActive: www.eusport.org/good_practices