The second European Week of Sport was officially opened last Saturday by Commissioner Tibor Navracsics and other high-level representatives from European institutions and the world of sport, as well as from Košice, Slovakia, the 2016 European City of Sport and candidate to host the 2021 Summer European Youth Olympic Festival.

The European Week of Sport was launched last year to promote sport and physical activity across Europe. The Week is for everyone, regardless of age, background or fitness level. With a focus on grassroots initiatives, it aims to inspire Europeans to #BeActive on a regular basis and create opportunities in peoples’ everyday lives to exercise more.

Tibor Navracsics twitted ” #Sport can play a vital role in building strong communities. That’s why we are supporting it, for instance through #EWoS #BeActive ” . He then officially started the Košice marathon warm up run, a 4.2 km run for the promotion of the Košice Peace Marathon 2016 (course: Imaculata – Dolná brána – Komenského – Imaculata ).

More than 7,500 events Involving 31 countries will take place until next Saturday 17 September,
among others, a photo competition with amazing prizes. For more information, visit http://ec.europa.eu/sport/week/photo-competition_en.htm

Through its European House of Sport in Brussels, the EOC is an official European partner of the Week, and supports the idea of promoting sport and physical activity among the European citizens also as an excellent opportunity to highlight the crucial role of sport clubs.

Besides the EOC, a number of European federations have become official partners of the European Week, including European Athletics, European Handball Federation (EHF) and UEFA. In addition, a number of NOCs are directly involved in the delivery of the European Week in their countries, in the role of National Coordinating Body (e.g. Czech Republic, Slovenia, France and the Netherlands) or in support of their national Ministries.

Slovakia is organising the European Week of Sport within its Presidency of the Council of the European Union, in the second semester of 2016.