Validation of the European values through sport and combating doping in sport are among the main priorities of the Ministry of Youth and Sports during the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. This was announced by the Minister of Youth and Sport - Krasen Kralev, who opened the first meeting of the European Commission's Expert Group "Integrity" (XG INT), held in Varna (23-24 April 2018). The expert group includes representatives of the governments of all member states, as well as representatives of international institutions working in the field of integrity in sport - Interpol, Europol, UN, Sporttardar. According to Krasen Kralev, sport allows the imposition of values for the integration of communities to prevent violence and aggression among adolescents. That is why it is important to ensure fair competition on equal terms in all sports. The minister also said that the use of doping is no less manipulative than the previously agreed outcome for betting profit, because it violates the equality of rivals.
During the meeting, Bence Garamvolgyi, project team member on behalf of Hope for children Hungary has presented #GoodGovernanceSport activities to the participants in the expert meeting.
The current collaborative partnership will implement various activities on local, national and international level; will focus in development, identification, analyzing, promotion and sharing good practices in good governance as well as giving recommendations to some of the observed practices that can be improved. The analysis that will be implemented during the project will be very useful for all sport organizations in Europe, regardless of their capacity and scope of activities. In the present times we are living now, our public face is available in few clicks and we need to be sure, that this face is reflecting the reality and is giving us the full picture of accountability and transparency. This project identifies and adequately addresses clearly specific needs for bringing a new approach of management and administration in the field of sport on national and European level. GGS will add to the existing knowledge, know-how and practices to the organizations and persons involved in project activities and outputs.
All activities we will hold by this project will be available and can be used as OER (open educational resources) to the interested stakeholders. The possibility for a self – learning path in the field of good governance will improve sport management or at least will present to the decision makers and administrators in sport what has to be improved. Trust in sport needs to be repaired and this is a small step to present who the organizations are, who is bringing the decisions on board, how public money are spent, who is responsible for the organizational issues at all levels.
Main objectives, we will focus in the project are:
• Improved good governance in sport in sport organizations in Europe at local, national and European level;
• Analysis of public face of European and national sport organizations, based on strict criteria and with transparent methodology, applicable to all of them with the same approach;
• By the planned dissemination events, we will increase attention to good governance at local and national level;
• Prepare and support next sport leaders, that believes and implements the values of integrity, “fair play”, transparency, integrity, fairness, dedication with the self-learning path and training mobility’s implemented during the project;
• By this project, will be strengthen the evidence base for policy making (studies, data gathering, surveys) at local, national and European level;
• Will be increased the knowledge and awareness regarding sport and physical activity, as in the same moment, will be strengthened the cooperation between institutions and organizations active in the field of sport and physical activity, not only inside the consortium, but also at local level in the partner organizations countries;
• Promotion of good governance principles in sport to all stakeholders and creating good governance multipliers;
• Improve good governance in sport with shortcut to resources - self-learning path in good governance in sport;
• Create an innovative network of professionals, devoted to good governance in sport from different parts of Europe, who will be committed to the project not only during project life, but also after the project end with development and growing good practice database;
• Raise awareness on the added value of sport and physical activities in relation to the personal, professional and social development of individuals through all planned project activities;
• Raise awareness on the importance of health-enhancing effects of physical through all planned project activities;
• Increase participation in physical activities and sport by increased number of local actions and events, awareness-raising activities and providing opportunity to individuals to personally experience the benefits of physical activities;
• Disseminate the accumulated knowledge and expertise of the partnership, its newly developed tools and best practices to inspire and promote further collaborations and synergies on the related topics;
• Empower specialists from different fields with the tools and instruments to act freely in their daily work, with the ideas that they can implement directly.
"Good governance in sport" project has been co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission - Sport chapter and it is a collaborative partnership that will work together for 36 months, starting from 01/01/2018 and includes 7 countries - Bulgaria - Bulgarian sports development association, Greece - ΑΕΤΟΙ ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗΣ, Italy - Mine Vaganti NGO, Croatia - Riječki Sportski Savez, Hungary - Reményt a Gyermekeknek Közhasznú Egyesület / Hope for Children Hungary, Poland - Stowarzyszenie Instytut Nowych Technologii / Association Institute of Innovative Technologies, Slovakia - A.D.E.L. – Association for Development, Education and Labor.
