Georgia to host European sports ministers’ annual gathering in 2018

Highest sports officials from 37 European countries will gather in Tbilisi as Georgia will host the 15th annual ministerial meeting of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) in 2018.

EPAS is a forum established in 2007 by the Council of Europe in order to give fresh momentum to pan-European sports co-operation and address the current challenges facing sport in Europe.

Georgia was selected as a location to host the next year’s event through a secret voting at a Council of Europe event in Cyprus last week.

EPAS provides a platform for intergovernmental sports co-operation between the public authorities of its 37 member states. It also encourages dialogue between public authorities, sports federations and NGOs. This contributes to better governance, with the aim of making sport healthier and fairer and ensuring that it conforms to high ethical standards.

It uses Council of Europe sports standards such as the European Sports Charter and the Code of Sports Ethics as the basis for carrying out standards, monitoring them and helping with capacity building and the exchange of good practice.

Since its creation, EPAS has also carried out many awareness-building and co-operation activities on diversity issues in and through sport and organises each year a conference on a specific topic relating to diversity.