CEV pledges support to EU Commission #HealthyLifestyle4All initiative

CEV Senior Vice-President Renato Arena attended on Thursday the opening ceremony of this year’s European Week of Sport organised by the European Commission in Bled, Slovenia. Mr Arena was one of three selected speakers to join the launch of the #HealthyLifestyle4All initiative introduced by the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mrs Mariya Gabriel. Mr Arena joined a high-level discussion panel featuring the recently elected President of the European Olympic Committees, Mr Spyros Capralos, and the chair of the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry, Mr Neil Narriman.

In his address, Mr Arena emphasised that the promotion of Volleyball at the grassroots level is a key priority for the CEV and the whole European Volleyball family. The implementation of the School Project under the slogan ‘Play Volleyball, grow with it’ is pivotal to the achievement of this strategic goal and it has already involved as many as 22 National Federations.

Mr Arena said, as he signed the relevant pledge to make the #HealthyLifestyle4All initiative a platform to achieve a positive change to the life of all European citizens.

“As a sport organisation with a history encompassing almost 50 years, the CEV has a rich knowhow and we feel that this can be beneficial not only to members of the Volleyball family, but to European citizens at large and beyond,” Mr Arena said. “We will incorporate the activities of this action into our existing network of federations, clubs and schools partners, mainly using our school project to introduce the #HealthyLifestyle4All initiative to the next generation of responsible and healthy citizens.”