CEV President hails productive, historic meeting with Commissioner Micallef

On Thursday, CEV President Roko Sikirić and CEV Managing Director Vuk Karanović had a highly productive exchange with the European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef. The truly historic meeting held at the premises of the European Commission in Brussels was the first such conversation involving the two leaders and it is testament to the prominent role that Volleyball plays across the continent in forging a healthy, active, and responsible society. 

The conversation revolved around measures designed to preserve the truly unique European sport model – of which Volleyball embodies the core traits – and measures to further expand the cooperation with the European Commission following a variety of EU-funded projects so far run by the European Volleyball Confederation with a focus on introducing the sport at school, as well as on good governance, sustainability, and much more. The CEV School Project ‘Play Volleyball – Grow with it’ has benefited from financial support through the Erasmus+ programme and thereby managed to involve tens of thousands of children, relatives, coaches, and PE teachers across some 30 countries. 

In a world marked by geopolitical tensions and increasingly polarised, the two parties agreed on the leading role that sport can play to bring people together and build bridges, while instilling values such as teamwork, respect, mutual support, friendship, and fair play. These represent the very core of the European sport model and reflect the major contribution that sport can provide to the EU efforts to grow tomorrow’s responsible citizens in a spirit of unity and mutual understanding. 

The Commissioner and the CEV President did also agree to join forces to utilise the annual celebrations of Europe Day scheduled for May 9 to spread such positive values even further, with a focus on our youngsters and their immediate social network.

“It was a pleasure to discuss with Commissioner Micallef the role that sport and more specifically Volleyball can play to promote solidarity and a healthy society, and this role becomes even more important and fundamental under the current challenging circumstances. This meeting was also an opportunity to introduce Commissioner Micallef to the major advancements that our Volleyball family has experienced in terms of gender equality, not to mention the continued support we are providing to female leaders across the whole spectrum of our sport, from coaches to match officials to administrators. I strongly believe that Volleyball represents a benchmark in many ways and we now look forward to expanding our cooperation with the European Commission to leverage our assets to the benefit of the whole society,” the CEV President commented after the meeting.