A seminar dedicated to EU funding opportunities and cooperation with the EU for NOCs from Eastern Europe, Western Balkans and Turkey was organised for the 1^st time in Belgrade by the EOC EU Office on 18 and 19 June 2018.

The NOC of Serbia, which had recently hosted also the 39^th EOC Seminar in May, welcomed representatives from 10 NOCs – Azerbaijan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine – keen to learn more about EU programmes and policy developments relevant to their countries.

The Seminar – coordinated by EOC EU Office Director Folker Hellmund – presented a number of sport-related projects, which have been co-funded by the EU in the respective countries through various programmes, such as Erasmus+ and cross-border or regional schemes. The participants learnt about many possibilities for NOCs and sport organisations based outside the EU to benefit from those programmes. They also heard presentations by expert speakers from the EU delegation to Serbia and from the National Erasmus+ Office in Serbia.

Djordje Visacki, Secretary General of the NOC of Serbia and EOC Executive Committee Member, said: “I feel that all participants really benefitted from the seminar. They acquired an extensive amount of know-how and information in a short time and were provided with a great networking platform to exchange expertise and experiences regarding the implementation of EU funded projects”.

In addition, as a next step, the organisers and participants agreed to focus on the concrete preparation and implementation of project ideas to better integrate sport in various future funding programmes.