11th October 2022
On the 6th and 7th of October 2022, a follow-up meeting of the ESCSE project was organised in Paris with all the partners. The project is now entering the final phase of drafting a European Social Charter for Sport Events and some important discussions took place on this topic.
A first version of the European Social Charter for Sport Events has been written in April 2022 and, since then, it has been tested by some of the project’s partners. The Rugby World Cup France 2023, the Slovenian Olympic Committee, the Italian Federation of Volleyball, and the European Federation of Sport Company implemented their own event or are currently organizing it and this meeting was an opportunity to present their conclusions on the first draft of the charter. As a result of these discussions, it appears that the Charter is a great tool to ensure social responsibility of sport events’ organizers, even though several elements have to be clarified.
First of all, it has been decided to refocus the scope of the charter on events of national scale and bigger, as these events are the most concerned by the issues of social responsibility and have the biggest resources to work on this topic. The social commitments of the charter may also be mostly oriented towards the people involved around sport events, such as workers, volunteers, athletes or governance. The issues of sustainability and legacy must still be addressed, but the main topic that the charter wishes to address is social responsibility and protection of anyone working for sport events’ organization.
Another important reflection took place on the topic of the dissemination strategy. Until now, the implementation of the charter relies on the goodwill of sport events’ organizers only. However, it can be a great tool for public action and the charter could be disseminated towards public authorities or right owners of the events, to ensure a greater impact and more social commitment from sport events’ organizers. Social partners are also important stakeholders that can realize great achievements for the protection of social relations in the organization of sport events. Indeed, the ESCSE project can be used as a tool to construct a social policy with the stakeholders or social partners of each sporting event. The project could also be the start of a cross-sectoral social partners negotiation, with the ESCSE being used as a base to discuss to achieve an officially recognized social charter in Europe.
These implementation strategies are very important for the follow-up of the project, as all partners of the ESCSE project have the ambition to encourage social responsibility of sport events and believe that sport can have a positive social impact.
The partners were also delighted to be welcomed in the offices of the Organization Committee for the Rugby World Cup France 2023, in the heart of Paris!
