High Level Group On Grassroots Sport Report to Commissioner Tibor Navracsics

Under the chairmanship of Sir Graham Watson (EuropeActive President) and Niels Nygaard, the specially appointed High Level Group (HLG) on Grassroots Sport met 5 times in 2015-16 and has now made proposed to European Commissioner Tibor Navracsics 10 key recommendations as their agenda to promote grassroots sport in Europe. These are under the main themes of:

Health Social inclusion Informal learning and skills development Volunteering Economic dimension Sustainable financing Urban planning and infrastructure

The HLG determined a new definition for grassroots sport being: “Grassroots sport is physical leisure activity, organised and non-organised, practised regularly at non-professional level for health, educational or social purposes” which extends the current definition used in the Erasmus+ programme.

Commenting on the work of the HLG Sir Graham Watson said “It was an honour to work with the members of the Group to produce this report for the Commissioner on time, and I am particularly pleased to see that there are clear recommendations for the role of grassroots sport and fitness in promoting health-enhancing physical activity and employment and skills development. These are two very important considerations for the fitness sector and I am convinced that we will be able to respond to these, and the other recommendations, to help promote and develop our sector. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the Commission and to further contribute to prioritising the promotion of grassroots sport in the next EU Work Plan for Sport.”

The Report from the HLG can be downloaded at: http://ec.europa.eu/sport/news/2016/0629-hlg-reports-grassroots-sport-diplomacy_en.htm