The EOC EU Office is dubbed the voice of the Olympic Sports Movement, promoting the interests of 61 umbrella organisations from Europe and beyond, and representing more than 70 million people. 

It stands for the preservation of sports integrity, promotion of good governance, better protection of property rights, stronger support for grassroots sport, better use of sport as a health-enhancing tool and better recognition of the societal role of sport.

EOC President Patrick Hickey, treasurer Kikis Lazarides and secretary general Rafaelle Pagnozzi were among those in attendance at the meeting, along with International Olympic Committee (IOC) general director Christophe de Kepper, the German Olympic Sports Confederation chief executive Michael Vesper and the Czech Olympic Committee secretary general Petr Graclik.

Overall, the representatives of the Executive Board expressed their great satisfaction for the excellent work of the EOC EU Office in recent years.

In particular, initiatives such as the new brochure "Funding for sports in the European Union" and the Policy Papers were greatly appreciated.

Hickey also explicitly thanked the CAC, which became a partner of the EOC EU Office in September, for its commitment to and support for the Office by the detachment of Jana Janotová.

EOC President Patrick Hickey thanked the Czech Olympic Committee for its commitment to and support for the EOC EU Office ©Getty Images



Folker Hellmund, head of the EOC EU Office, presented the organisation's main tasks for 2015 including the implementation of the Support the Implementation of Good Governance in Sport (SIGGS) project co-funded by the Erasmus+ sports funding programme.

The representatives of the Board agreed that the data protection reform will be the most important political topic for sport on the EU agenda for the year 2015.

Furthermore, they concluded that one of the main challenges is to set-up working relationships with the different new political actors in Brussels.

In this regard, it was agreed that a bilateral meeting between the IOC President Thomas Bach and the new commissioner for sport, Tibor Navracsics, should be scheduled in the near future.

The next Board meeting will most likely take place in the first half of next year.
 
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