EOSE General Assembly and Members’ Seminar 2023

The 13 and 14 of December 2023 saw EOSE members gather for the EOSE General Assembly (GA) and Annual Members’ Seminar 2023 in Budapest, Hungary.

This annual event restricted to EOSE members gathered a total of 38 participants from 23 countries and was hosted by the Hungarian University of Sports Science (HUSS).

EOSE General Assembly 2023

The General Assembly was opened by EOSE President Kirstie Simpson who thanked everyone for their attendance at this busy time of year and extended warm gratitude to HUSS staff members, Szilvia Perényi and Judit Farkas, for their wonderful efforts in making the event possible.

The GA then received a brief introduction to the draft EOSE strategic plan for 2024-2026 which would be distributed for feedback and finalisation. This was followed by an update from Aurélien Favre, Executive Director, on membership – 36 organisations based in 28 countries – including new members from the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Turkey. Members agreed to complete EU coverage by identifying organisations from Austria and Slovakia and to push to find members from non-EU countries.

Aurélien then provided members with an overview of EOSE’s activities in 2023 which highlighted continuing cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an ongoing EU course on sport administration, the successful completion of projects on European sport volunteering, gender and sport officiating, modernising education in golf and the publication of sport employment statistics for 2021-2022.

Two members, Javier Pérez Tejero (Polytechnic University of Madrid) and Vilma Čingienė (Mykolas Romeris University) presented on two new initiatives they had initiated in the sport sector.

The formal parts of the General Assembly concluded with a finance report and confirmation of the Executive Board whose membership remains unchanged with the unanimous re-election of Simone Digennaro (UNICAS, Italy), Mark Cutajar (SportMalta) and Abel Santos (ESDRM, Portugal).

EOSE Annual Members’ Seminar 2023

Following the annual EOSE General Assembly, EOSE held the annual Members’ Seminar the on the morning of 14 December 2023 at the Hungarian University of Sports Science (HUSS) in Budapest.

This gave an opportunity for members to review EOSE’s statistical findings and analysis of sport employment for the period from 2011 to 2022, including, for the first time, an overview of trends since the main effects of the COVID pandemic were over (2021-2022).

Aurélien Favre, EOSE Executive Director, gave a presentation highlighting some of the key findings and trends. Noting certain definitional changes, members were able to examine EU sport employment growth in 2021-2022 for the EU-27 + UK as a whole and some broad summaries on positive and negative growth on a country-by-country basis. Working in interactive groups, members reflected on these and gave feedback on how they compared with their own impressions of their national sport labour markets.

Members were then presented with detailed breakdowns of the sport labour force by gender, age, level of qualification, part-time and fulltime employment and self-employment. Working in the same groups, the members considered a number of questions relating to trends including possible reasons, challenges for the sector and potential solutions.

Aurélien concluded the discussion by explaining that the full sport employment statistical report and analysis for the EU27 + the UK would be made available in early January 2024, together with a factsheet and factsheets for each individual country.

Testimonials

Aurélien Favre, EOSE Executive Director, said: :

“The annual EOSE event is always a highlight, bringing together all our members for a shared exploration of the latest developments and activities in the sport sector. The opportunity to exchange ideas on priority actions for both the sport sector and EOSE is always invaluable and inspirational.”

“The EOSE Members’ Seminar on the second day was a particularly enriching experience, providing a platform to present the latest statistics concerning the sport labour market in Europe and engaging in deep discussions on realities and trends.”

“I extend my congratulations to Mark Cutajar, Abel Santos, and Simone Digennaro for their re-election as Executive Board members of the organisation. Their continued commitment and support contribute significantly to the success and progress of EOSE.”