The EU Sport Forum was held between May 02-03 in Stockholm, Sweden. Representing the European Judo Union and attending the event in person was Nuno DELGADO, EJU Commissioner for Judo for Children and online, Katja RUDAŠ who oversees Erasmus Projects.
This event is an important milestone of the European Commission initiative for sports allowing representatives from public policy, EU institutional, private enterprise, educational and other experts from across the field of sport to discuss challenges, opportunities and the future of Sport in the EU.
The EU Sport Forum is the main platform for structured dialogue between the European Commission and sport stakeholders. The Forum’s main objective is to take stock of progress achieved in implementing the EU agenda for sport, and to seek stakeholders’ views on current and planned/possible future activities. Collaboration takes place via high-level group discussions and panels, exploring themes such as anti-doping, corruption, discrimination, mobility and many others.
The Forum is a critical initiative for experts seeking to meet the challenges facing the world of sport. Leaders in this field can therefore expect a greater understanding of how sport is adapting to issues of economy, scale and innovation in the EU and beyond. In this year’s edition the main topic was the EU strategy for 2023 with the 3I – Innovation + Inclusion + Involvement.
EJU is currently an Associated Partner of two main Erasmus + projects “Jita Kyoei 2” and “European week of Judo Values” and this event was a great opportunity to get the right information, contacts and negotiate future partnerships and projects.
With her focus on Erasmus, Rudaš can identify the areas in which we can progress in terms of education,
I coordinate EJU participation in our two projects of 2023 and am monitoring all the projects that involve judo in Europe. Erasmus + has had a boost of finance for this cycle and the EJU wants to leverage all its members to be active in their community and take judo to more schools and clubs.
The highlight of the event was the #BEINCLUSIVE awards where the Minister of Sport for Ukraine presented the winner making a very compelling speech about the importance of sports for this nation to motivate and to keep active in such difficult adversity. The entire audience was in solidarity and left with a sene of the impact that sport can have in promoting peace.
Vice President of the EJU for Education, Sergei ASCHWANDEN stated,
I am quite happy with the fast development made in this area of development, as you all know I believe that judo is one of the best civic tools for human development and we are quite in line with the 3I policy of the European Union. Me and my team have had great support from the Board of the EJU and I am sure that in the near future Judo will be an important stakeholder in the Sports Commission of EU.
Delgado concurred with this,
It was an honour to represent the EJU together with my colleague Katja Rudas, for me it’s the second time I have participated and I can follow the evolution of the sports policies in the EU and see many opportunities for the EJU to co-fund existing ideas and programmes that could have a great impact in our European community. Judo is more than Sport and this is a field where we can raise the EJU range of activity.
Author: Thea Cowen