On the 28th of June, 2023, EASE held its General Assembly.

The Assembly was chaired by Laurent Martini, EASE’s Executive Director and COSMOS representative. Unfortunately, Philippe Diallo, chairman of EASE, couldn’t attend the General Assembly as he was committed to representing the French Football Federation at UEFA Executive Committee in Nyon.

EASE General Assembly took place in Cologne, even though members also participated remotely from France, Ireland and Italy.

First of all, this Assembly was a great occasion to look back at the development of EASE over the last year. The association celebrated its 20th anniversary: This year was marked by an excellent development for the association and its network, as EASE recently got in touch with many new partners.

For instance, EASE met in May 2023 with some members of the Sports Group at the European Parliament to present its actions (and, more particularly, the advancements of the European Social Charter for Sport Events). The recognition of the association and its efforts have been growing for the last months, and the association’s recent activities shall help its development.

This GA was the occasion of new board elections, as a new mandate is starting for the period 2023 – 2025:

 

Philippe Diallo has been re-elected as Chairman of EASE.

Johnatan Kibebe has been re-elected as General Secretary of EASE.

Petri Heikkinen has been re-elected as Treasurer of EASE.

Congratulations on their re-election!

 

All the projects of the association are advancing quite well:

  • Regarding the European Social Charter for Sport Events, a consortium meeting occurred in May at Paris 2024 headquarters. Discussions on the final content took place and one of the key ideas to emerge was the addition of indicators to measure the effectiveness of commitments.
  • In the framework of the BeST Inclusion project, the academic partners are currently producing studies on the employment barriers that women, young people, and people with disabilities may encounter in the European sport sector. Nine national roundtables will take place from October 2023 to February 2024 to prepare guide of good practices.
  • In the framework of the VERA project, EASE is finalising an analysis of the status of women athletes’ rights in Europe, which aims at increasing awareness about the concrete situation of elite sportswomen in Europe.
  • The SDEPS project is arriving at its first half: A mapping of the outcomes of social dialogue for professional sports in Europe has been produced. This mapping presents collective bargaining agreements and other social dialogue documents in 12 European countries for 8 sports.

Therefore, many events will take place for EASE within the second semester of 2023:

  • In September, EASE will publish the report “Analysis of the status of women athletes’ rights in Europe”. This report has been written by the EASE team for the last few months in the framework of the VERA project. It is an overview of legal dispositions and national mechanisms existing in European countries for the promotion and development of the elite sport practice of female elite athletes in Europe.
  • In September, the final phase of the ESCSE project will begin, and a final conference will be held to present the Charter in Brussels in November. It will hopefully be attended by various stakeholders in the European sports movement, including European politic institutions. The aim is to get sports institutions to commit to implementing the document so that it can live on after the project’s official end.

In the meantime, EASE should also continue working on all the essential themes of social dialogue in the European sport sector while producing recurrent EASETALKS on the main topics for European sports employers. This GA was indeed an opportunity to have a new EASE TALKS, on the topic of the future of the European sport model. After an introductory presentation of Jean-François Brocard, from the Sports Law and Economics Center (Limoges, France), EASE members discussed the consequences that any modification of the European sport model could have on small sports structures and on the employment in the sport sector. This EASETALKS will be produced and published by the end of July.

Thus, this General Assembly was an important moment, as it enabled the members to review past actions and plan for the association’s future. As a result, it brings EASE’s members together to collaborate on achieving the association’s collective goals, which will definitely help enhance and improve EASE’s strategies and outcomes for the upcoming years.