On January 28 and 29 2020 a Co-creating Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps event took place in Brussels, Belgium. Over one and a half days, more than 600 participants had the opportunity to experience a mix of plenary and thematic breakout sessions focused on the main activities of Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps programmes, taking stock of the achievements so far and looking ahead with proposals for improvement and best practices. There were ample opportunities to provide input and fine-tuning of the support mechanisms and technical aspects of the implementation. The discussions were built upon the work done during the intensive co-creation process of the last years. In addition to the working sessions, networking opportunities and cultural activities were offered to complement the agenda and to facilitate exchanges among stakeholders.
The event was opened by H.E. Mariya Gabriel - Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth that highlighted that @EUErasmusPlus continue to be one of the great success stories of the European Union! In 2018 the programme allowed 850000+ people to gain valuable experience abroad, supported thousands of organisations and projects. The Commissioner stated also that #ErasmusPlus and #eusolidaritycorps conference are not programmes, these are investments and they're about to be more accessible, more simple, more green... with double the efforts in the future!
The participants from all across Europe represented individual participants, trainers, experts, policy makers, national agencies and organisations active in the field of education, training, youth and sport. Bulgarian sports development association was represented at the event through its chairwoman – Yoanna Dochevska that was part of the #BeActive workshop aiming to define the future framework of the European horizontal funding post 2020 in the field of sport. Sport is a powerful tool for bringing people together and developing people-to-people contacts. Cooperation, partnerships and exchanges at the grassroots level inside the EU as well as with non-EU countries can contribute to the development of new skills and positively influence societal changes. In addition, learning by doing can be beneficial for the individuals, for their organisations and for sport as a whole. By leading and guiding participants, sport staff members (such as: coaches, managers or instructors) have an impact on their knowledge, skills, health, well-being and can transfer values. Learning mobility should be seen as an investment in human capital and a contribution to the capacity building of various sport organisations.
So far mobility in sport was not covered by the Erasmus+ Sport Chapter. Therefore, the Commission has proposed to integrate, for the first time under the future programme, possibilities of exploring new ways of learning – through mobilities. Since 2018 this idea is being tested by the use of specifically dedicated financial support called Pilot project. Up to now 18 projects has been supported and are on-going and one of them – #SportDiplomacyAcademy is coordinated by Bulgarian sports development association.
To fully benefit from the potential of this new tool and the power of sport, preparatory work needs to be done for this action, building on already existing good practices from the different fields like youth or education and training.
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