Values of sport: building bridges in a united Europe
21-23 November 2024 | Pristina, Kosovo
Hosted by the Kosovo Olympic Committee
Event venue: Swiss Diamond Hotel, Boulevard Mother Teresa N.N. – 10000 Pristina, Kosovo
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Under the theme of “Values of sport: building bridges in a united Europe”, the 2024 European Sport Platform
The seventh edition of ENGSO’s flagship event – The European Sport Platform, will be held in Pristina, Kosovo, on 21-23 November 2024, and hosted by the National Olympic Committee of Kosovo.
DAY 1
21 November 2024
Sports as Value final conference
DAY 2
22 November 2024
European Sport Platform
DAY 3
23 November 2024
European Sport Platform
Programme of the event
DAY 1: 21 November 2024
Title of the conference
Is Sport a value for our society?
14:30
Welcome and introduction
Maja Djuric
NOC BIH
15.15 - 15.45
Data on value and perception of sport in the Balkan Region
Florian Miftari
Univeristy of Prishtina
EMA HABUL
NOC BIH
15.45 - 16.15
Coffee break
16.15 - 17.00
Values of Sport, Values in Sport, Value through Sport: let's have it clear.
Esmeralda Gonçalinho
Sport Confederation of Portugal
17.00 - 18.30
Sport speed dating
– Safeguarding;
– gender equality.
Maja Pekovic
NOC Montenegro
Valentina di Carlantonio
OPES
Mojca Doupona
EAS
19.00
Aperitif reception
DAY 2: 22 November 2024
10:30
Welcome and introduction
11:20
Sport and EU enlargement cooperation process
Mimika Dobroshi
Kosovo Erasmus+ Office Head/ Coordinator
Edith Zuschmann
President, CEO, and Co-Founder of the global non-profit, 261 Fearless, Inc
Ms. Dobroshi has been the Coordinator of the Kosovo Erasmus+ Office since 2022. She possesses extensive experience in EU affairs, regional cooperation, and project management, particularly in education, research and development, and employment in Southeast Europe. Her career includes significant roles in political settings, governmental institutions, and intergovernmental organizations in Prishtina, Sarajevo, and Brussels. She has worked with the Stability Pact for South East Europe in Brussels, the Regional Cooperation Council in Sarajevo, and as a GIZ expert supporting Kosovo institutions in the Berlin Process. Ms. Dobroshi holds an MA in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, providing her with a robust academic and practical understanding of EU politics, institutions, and decision-making.
Runes background is from the United Nations Association of Norway, where he worked as Deputy Secretary General on international development and human rights advocacy, and from the National Youth Council working to increase youth participation and involvement in international organisations. In addition Rune has served on different boards, including the international board of Amnesty International for 8 years.
Edith Zuschmann is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of the global non-profit, 261 Fearless, Inc. which currently serves to empower and educate a network of over 6,000 women in 14 countries, on 5 continents. One of these countries is Albania, where she has been educating women to become coaches to lead women’s only running groups in Tirana, Rreshen and Fier and support women to take their first running steps.
She has worked as a marketing manager, sports journalist for Austrian and German media outlets as well as a sports project manager for several international sports organizations. Edith is a graduate of the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Austria, where she now lectures on Public Relations and Sports. She is a nationally certified athletic and running coach working with women endurance athletes. She was a national ranked swimmer and enjoys all kinds of long distance swimming, biking and running events especially swimruns.
14:00
Values of integrity: the guideline for a sport that respects human rights
Rune Arctander
Head of International Development the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports
Daulina Osmani
Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport in Kosovo
Rune Arctander has a background in the field of international relations, sports for development and human rights. He is currently the Director of International Relations at the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF), where he focuses on using sports to promote good governance, sustainability, and development.
Runes background is from the United Nations Association of Norway, where he worked as Deputy Secretary General on international development and human rights advocacy, and from the National Youth Council working to increase youth participation and involvement in international organisations. In addition Rune has served on different boards, including the international board of Amnesty International for 8 years.
Daulina Osmani was born on February 9, 1993, in Prishtina. She studied at the University of Prishtina, in the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports. She completed her master’s degree in “Sports Management” at Seoul National University, South Korea.
For 10 years, Daulina Osmani developed her career as an active athlete, representing Kosovo in swimming. She was a champion swimmer from 2003 to 2009, holding 23 Kosovo records in various swimming disciplines. Daulina spent the final year of her active swimming career in Croatia.
Over the last 7 years, in her role as a swimming coach, she has contributed to the development of young athletes by implementing programs for the identification and development of new swimming talents. She has been an initiator of various causes related to the organization and governance of sports organizations in the country.
For several years, Daulina Osmani has been involved in various sport organizations, representing the voices of students, athletes, and coaches. She was also a part of working committees responsible for selecting the best athletes of the year.
Since April 2021, she has continued to serve as the Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sport, with a primary focus on the field of sports.
16:00
Parallel workshops
Safeguarding to protect mental health in youth and young athletes
Erik van Haaren
ENGSO Youth Vice-Chair, NOC*NSF, Headwint
My name is Erik van Haaren, I am 32 years old and live in the Netherlands. From a very young age I have been very interested in sports. I often watched sports broadcasts on TV with my parents but was also happy when I had my field hockey stick in my hands or when I was on my racing bike.
That is why I always aspired to work in sports. After first working in social care for several years, I started studying psychology and then completed a master’s degree in sports psychology. This was the start for me to begin as an entrepreneur and establish my own company Headwint sportpsychology. As a sports psychologist, I now coach several talents and high-performance athletes to improve their mental performance. I get very satisfied with this work because I really enjoy when I notice that I can contribute to the development and performance of an athlete.
Besides this job, I work for the NOC*NSF (Dutch Olympic Committee and Dutch Sports federation). Here I work at the Center for Safe Sports The Netherlands. This is a special department which serves as a knowledge center and reporting center for situations around transgressive behavior. Topics that are regularly discussed are for example: discrimination, (sexual) harassment, and bullying. Together with my colleagues, we feel that we are making Dutch sports society safer. Although the content of the work often does not highlight the most beautiful side of sport, this work provides a lot of satisfaction when you feel you can really help someone else.
Match-Fixing: the connecting line from elite to grassroots sport
Lisa Wainwright
Sport+RecreationAlliance, Sports Betting Group
Evangelos Alexandrakis
Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (IOC)
Karen Moorhouse
International Tennis Integrity Agency
Lisa Wainwright MBE
CEO, Sport and Recreation Alliance
Lisa Wainwright MBE has been CEO of the Sport and Recreation Alliance since 2019 and has held a variety of senior leaderships roles across the sector over the last twenty years, including as Director at Sport England, CEO of Volleyball England and CEO of British Basketball. Internationally, Lisa has held roles on the European Volleyball (CEV) Credentials Panel and at the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) as their Technical Director and on their World Ethics Panel. She was also a member of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Governance Commission, as well as being a Director of the British Olympic Association.
Lisa graduated from the UK Sport CEO Executive Leadership Programme, and in 2018 became an Ambassador for Women on Boards UK. In 2019 she was ranked number 8 in the Top 100 Executive LGBT+ Allies by FT OUTStanding. Lisa is Vice Chair of Governors at Northampton School for Girls, is a member of the Sports Broadcast Committee and a judge for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero Award. Lisa was shortlisted for The Times Sports Women of the Year – Gamechanger Award (2023) for her work in securing the UK’s Secretariat for and host of the International Working Group on Women in Sport. She has two young daughters aged 11 and 12, and in 2022 was awarded an MBE for Services to Sport.
Evangelos (Vagelis) Alexandrakis
Senior Manager – Policy & Institutional Relations, Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions, International Olympic Committee, Ethics and Compliance Office
Evangelos works as Senior Manager – Policy & Institutional Relations within the Olympic Movement Unit on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions. Evangelos has an extensive legal background and his prior working experience includes the sport unit of the European Commission, the European Lotteries and the Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS). He has been for numerous years a proud volunteer of the International Olympic Academy (IOA).
Karen is CEO of the International Tennis Integrity Agency. The ITIA is responsible for operating the anti-corruption and anti-doping programmes across professional tennis.
Karen joined the ITIA in February 2023 after 14 years at the Rugby Football League (the governing body of Rugby League in the UK) where she was an Executive Director and Chief Regulatory Officer. Karen also served as a Director on the Board of the Rugby League World Cup hosted in England in 2022. She remains a trustee of Rugby League Cares – an independent charity responsible for, amongst other things, delivering Rugby League’s player welfare programme.
DAY 3: 23 November 2024
09:00
Parallel workshops: Sport as an influencer of society: parallel workshops
Legacy of major sport events for grassroots sport and society
Gerard Esteva
UFEC
Besim Aliti
Secretary General of NOC Kosovo
Barcelona, 1984. Currently, he is the president of the Union of Sports Federations of Catalonia (since 2014), which promotes and represents federated sports in Catalonia, encompassing 71 federations, 12,000 clubs, and more than 750,000 members. He has also been the CEO of Unifedesport, a sports insurance brokerage, since 2014, and president of the Catalan Olympic Committee (COC) since 2016. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Euncet Business School since 2016, and since December 2020, vice president of WESCO (World eSports Consortium).
Additionally, he serves as president of CUFADE, the Confederation of Unions of Autonomous Spanish Sports Federations. Since 2023, he has been a member of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Executive Committee of the Barcelona Capital Nàutica Foundation, and a trustee of the Barcelona Maritime Museum Foundation. Through UFEC, he has led more than one hundred projects for the protection and improvement of Catalan sports and the entire sports sector. He has promoted programs for the employment inclusion of young people at risk of social exclusion through sports, as well as programs for the certification of ethical and responsible management in sports entities.
In 2018, in collaboration with all Catalan sports federations, he launched a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) for a new sports law. The initiative has garnered 154,492 signatures and is His professional career has been deeply connected to the sports world across various organizations. He served as president of the Catalan Sailing Federation (2009-2014) and as administrator of the Barcelona International Sailing Center (2009-2014). Previously, he was the national secretary of the Catalan Sailing Association and president of ADIPAV (Catalan Patí a Vela Association, 2004-2009), as well as national secretary of the Patí a Vela Association (2004-2009). He has also been involved with the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation as a member of the executive committee and the board of directors (2004-2014).
She been working at the French NOC since 2014 and am actually deputy director of the international relations department, specifically in charge of international cooperation and the relations with the French-speaking NOCs
MEMOS Alumni (MEMOS XXIII) with a MEMOS project on “How to develop cooperation between National Olympic Committees? The example of the development of the French-speaking Association of National Olympic Committees as an area for international cooperation: strategic plan 2021-2026”
She has a master’s degree in international relations from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille (France) and the University of Münster (Germany) and a master’s degree in sport management from the University of Aix-Marseille (France)
– Experienced NOC CEO/Secretary General responsible for day-to-day management, financial and oversight and operational performance of the organization, reporting to the President and the Executive Board.
– Extensive expertise in International Sport Management and Strategic Planning; unwavering passion and deep understanding of the Olympic Movement.
– Successfully led multi-cultural high performing teams in international major sport events and sport organizations ranging from 15 to 600 employees and contractors, working closely with all functional areas, including finances, legal, human resources, sport management, venue management, marketing/commercial, PR.
– Proven track record in project planning and overseeing whole operations of the project/organization; creating, monitoring, and running risk registers and risk mitigation strategies.
– Experienced in building trusted relationships and working with various stakeholders including National, European, and International federations, governments, cities and sponsors.
– Experienced in working with commissions and working groups; successfully coordinated the work of Coordination Commissions and working commissions on European level.
– Experienced in developing and implementing visionary plans and successful business strategies focused on creating commercial revenues and investments leading to increased budgets, sponsorship activities and boosting the member organizations; deep understanding of corporate finance principles.
– Excellent communicator on international level with exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills; experienced in public speaking on media, general assemblies, congresses, and conferences.
– Experience in applying and successfully managing EU projects.
– Former International Athlete on the Croatian National Karate Team from 2010 to 2013.
Human rights and equality in sport: human rights in sport
Vanja Smokvina
University of Rijeka
Daniela Heerdt
Researcher and consultant at Centre for Sport & Human Rights
Sarah Townsend
ENGSO EWS Committee member
Hugh Torrance
LEAP Sports Scotland
ARMENDA FILIPAJ
Founder of the Girl’s Football Team KFV Prishtina (and UN Women Programme Support Officer).
Sam de Vor
NOC NSF
A researcher and consultant in the sport and human rights field, Daniela has multiple years of experience working with international organisations, sports bodies, civil society and academic institutions on a range of intersecting topics within the sport and human rights field, including the human rights impacts of mega-sporting events, remedy of sport-related human rights abuses, or gender and sports.
Vanja Smokvina is an Associate Professor of sports law, labour and social security law at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law (Croatia). He is the Head of the Institute of Sports Law, Sports Policies and Sports Diplomacy and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in EU Sports Law, Policy & Diplomacy (2022-2025). Professor Smokvina is also an Arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (Switzerland).
Hugh Torrance is founder and Executive Director of Scotland’s LGBTIQ+ sports charity LEAP Sports. In this role he works as an expert advisor on LGBTIQ+ human rights and equality policy issues and works closely with a range of Sports Governing Bodies. He is Chair of Scotland’s National LGBTIQ+ Sports Group which brings together ScottishGovernment and the National Sports Agency sportscotland, with sports bodies, agencies and a range of non-governmental organisations. In his spare time, Hugh is Co-President of the European Gay & Lesbian Sports Federation, representing the interests of more than 12,000 LGBTIQ+ athlete members across Europe, which includes representing the EGLSF on the Consultative Committee of EPAS.
Igballe (Igo) Rogova, Executive Director of the Kosovo Women’s Network, has more than 30 years’ experience empowering women and advocating for women’s human rights at municipal, national and international levels. With her sister Safete and brother-in-law Nuredin Loxha, she co-founded one of the first women’s rights organisations in Kosovo, the Motrat Qiriazi Association for the eradication of illiteracy in 1989. The Association spurred a campaign that supported thousands of girls and women to become literate and further their education, all at a time when the Serbian authorities were burning Albanian language books. She supported the establishment of the Rural Women’s Network in 1996, which later transformed into the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) in 2000. She also inspired the establishment of the Kosovo Lobby for Gender Equality and Coalition
for Gender Equality, which unite diverse women from politics and civil society towards joint aims. She was a founder of the Women’s Peace Coalition of activists in Kosovo and Serbia, and the Regional Women’s Lobby for Peace and Security in South East Europe. She has
contributed to the passage of several laws and policies towards furthering gender equality in Kosovo. She has mentored and empowered dozens of women in Kosovo and beyond.
She is a vocal and active supporter of diverse women of all ethnicities, ages, sexualities, identities, and abilities. She also has served on a variety of international advisory groups for the UN and NATO, advocating women’s active engagement in decision-making as per UN Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
I am dedicated to advancing inclusivity in sports working for the National Olympic Committee & National Sports Federation in the Netherlands. Since 2019, I have overseen programs focused on creating a welcoming and inclusive sports environment. I coordinated and contributed to different projects relating paralympic sport, sports in low-income neighborhoods and anti-discrimination interventions. My work also includes developing a guideline for supporting gender and sex-diverse individuals in sports. In addition, I bring hands-on expertise as a national-level runner, athletics coach, and team manager for Paralympic talent programs at the Rio, Tokyo en Paris Games.
The role of EU City of Sport in promoting grassroots sport and active lifestyle
Përparim Rama
Mayor of Pristina
Lukas Vorel
ACES
Perparim Rama has completed his undergraduate studies in architecture at London South Bank University from 1995 to 1998. From 2001 to 2003 he continued the second part of his studies at the University of East London in Architecture and Urban Planning. Having completed his Bachelor studies, he pursued a Master DipArch degree at the University of East London. He was recognized as a distinguished Master from CECA (Center for Evolutionary Computing in Architecture).
He established his architecture & Urban Planning practice with 4M Group, based in London and Prishtina with projects globally. He also has experience as a mentor in the School of Architecture at the University of Nottingham and has supervised Doctorate Candidates in Generative Architecture and SMART building design in the MA and PHD program at the SmartLab Media Institute. In 2012, at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Rama represented Kosovo for the first time in history with the ‘Filigree Maker’ Pavilion, which was positively welcomed by the international media.
Rama was a consultant to the National Research Fund of the State of Qatar on the country’s current and future urban and architectural projects. Përparim Rama was a specialist advisor for the development of spatial planning tools and architecture in the municipalities of Newham Council and Tower Hamlets in London as part of London Olympics 20212. He has led the drafting of the regulatory plan for Kosovo’s capital, Prishtina. He is a periodic advisor/critic at the University of East London and a Periodic Critic at the Architectural Association of the United Kingdom.
He was the winner of the most prestigious award in the world for design at the “World Interior News” competition at Saatchi Gallery in London in 2013.
Përparim Rama was elected Mayor of Prishtina in the 2021 mayoral elections and is currently serving as Mayor of the Capital City.
11:30
Building a strong grassroots movement to keep active communities
Anna Ottosson Blixth
CEO of the Swedish Sports Confederation in the region Jämtland Härjedalen
Lorik Cana
Founder and Chairman of the board LC 5F
For many years, Anna Ottosson Blixth has worked with regional development, focusing on the possibilities of sport to create attractiveness and development in society. Today she works to support and represent sport in her role as CEO of the Swedish Sports Confederation in the region Jämtland Härjedalen.
The Swedish Sports Confederation is an important player in the region and Anna is responsible for conducting a continuous dialogue with politicians, companies and other decision-makers in order to influence and create better conditions for sport, strengthen the message about the social benefits of sport and the value of investing in sport.
In the region Jämtland there are approximately 400 sport clubs and Anna’s employees are supporting the sport clubs in their development in creating good, safe and sustainable sport activities for children, young people, adults and elderly.
Anna grow up in Östersund, a small town in Sweden, where a great interest in sports led to participation in many local sports clubs. The interest in sports eventually led to an elite career in alpine skiing where, for 14 years, she competed for the Swedish alpine national team in the World Cup, which resulted in a number of podium finishes and an Olympic medal in Turin 2006 in giant slalom.
12:45
Sum up and closing
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.