European Youth & Sport Platform 2023 shapes the future agenda of the youth and sport in Europe
Around 100 participants, four days, three high-level sessions, nine workshops… From 1-4 June 2023, young leaders from all over Europe gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, for the inaugural edition of the European Youth & Sport Platform 2023.
The event was organised by ENGSO Youth in cooperation with ENGSO and The Swedish Sports Confederation, under the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
With a mission to develop and advocate for youth and sport in Europe and under the theme of Youth Legacy in and within Sport, and in line with the Swedish EU Presidency’s priorities, good governance, sustainability and digitalisation were the key discussion points of the event.
The European Youth & Sport Platform 2023 initiated a dialogue between the European youth and the representatives from the European Commission, European Youth Foundation, European Youth Forum, European eSports Federation, European Hockey Federation, IOC Young Leaders programme, Youth Health Organisation, Ministry of Social Affairs Sweden and Swedish Sports Confederation.
Through the panel sessions and engaging workshops, young participants also had the opportunity to shape the future of the European youth and sport agenda, while also joining forces to produce and develop a conclusion paper with recommendations that will be now delivered to policy- and decision-makers.
The event, moderated by Lorraine Moalosi, kicked off on Thursday, 1 June 2023, with video addresses from Tomasz Frankowski, Member of the European Parliament, and Sophie Kwasny, Head of the Council of Europe Sport Division and EPAS Executive Secretary and warm welcome speeches from Stefan Bergh, ENGSO President, Ugne Chmeliauskaite, ENGSO Youth Chair, and Victoria Escobar, Swedish Sports Confederation.
“We knock on the doors of the European stakeholders, to remind them, that Youth is here”, in her opening speech highlighted Ugne Chmeliauskaite, ENGSO Youth chair, encouraging participants and stakeholders of the European Youth and Sport sectors to open up for mutual conversations and cooperation for future, where Youth is involved in the decision-making processes.
The panel discussion on the importance of youth voices in the European sport setting included Violeta Birzniece (European Commission), Sylvia Ivanova (European Youth Foundation), Stefan Bergh (ENGSO), Ugne Chmeliauskaite (ENGSO Youth) and Mark McNulty (European Youth Forum) who introduced the work of the institutions in the field of youth and the opportunities for young people those organisations provide.
The event also welcomed representatives from various sport programmes dedicated for Youth, including Dr. Sophia Papamichalopoulos (IOC Young Leaders programme), Jan Fiala (HealthyLifestyle4all Youth Ideas Lab), Rawand Ben Brahim (ENGSO Youth Young Delegates), Cameron Findler (EHF Youth Panel Programme) and Iva Glibo (New Leaders programme). The aim of the panel, moderated by ENGSO Youth Policy manager Tiago Guilherme, was to share experiences and opportunities those programmes offer to young people and encourage to bring this international experiences to the local/national environment, as it was explained by the President of the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth, Mr. Vítor Pataco via video message.
An engaging discussion was initiated during the Digitalisation and Sport main session, after the keynote speaker Tiago Fernandes, European Esports Federation President, with support from Chris Jonasson, General Secretary, Swedish Esports Federation, introduced the work, values and future agenda of the federation.
European Youth & Sport Platform also include nine workshops on three different topics: Good governance: Youth in Action!, Digitalisation and Sport and Sustainability in Sport. Those workshops served as the basis to develop and gather recommendations from the participants (on the three topics introduced) that will be included in the main outcome of the event – the Final conclusions.
IOC Young Leaders, Young Integrity Ambassadors Programme (Sweden) and HealthyLifestyle4All Youth Ideas Lab representatives led the first set of workshops on the topic of good governance.
Digitalisation and Sport workshops mainly focused on the impact of “tech era” on the well-being of youth. Youth Health Organisation, ENGSO Youth and Swedish Esports Federation were the facilitators of the second set of workshops.
The last day focused on sustainability in sport and included the announcement of ENGSO Youth Best Volunteer which became Anton Klischewski and the presentation of the essays by the three winners of our competition – Lili Bálint, You-De Chen and Lukáš Kendra.
ENGSO Youth, Swedish Sports Association/WELLcome project and Fritidsbanken Sweden leading the last three of nine workshops in the programme.
The event ended with a conclusion session, with Tomas Johansson (Ministry of Social Affairs Sweden), Stefan Bergh (ENGSO President), Ana-Marija Garcevic (IOC) and sharing the feed on recommendations proposed by the young participants of the event via national, European and international perspective.
Besides the “be active” sessions that kick-started each day of the European Youth & Sport Platform, the event also included networking, engaging and fun sessions such as movie night, bbq evening, picnic afternoon, boardgames nights and more.
We would like to thank Swedish Sports Confederation for a warm welcome in their home base in Sweden, the representatives of institutions and speakers for contributing to the dialogue with youth, and last but not least – the participants from all over Europe who joined us and helped make European Youth & Sport Platform 2023 a youthful, engaging and unforgettable experience.
See you all in European Youth and Sport Platform 2025 edition, which will be organised in Warsaw, Poland on 5-8 June 2025.