President Svein Arne Hansen has welcomed the European Athletics Council’s approval of his plan to restructure the organisation’s commissions to play stronger roles in the delivery of his agenda for change in the sport and his nominations of the chairpersons to lead each of the commissions.
Among the changes agreed today, the second day of the weekend’s Council meeting in Oslo, are new names and terms of reference for two previously existing commissions, the creation of two completely new commissions, and the discontinuation of five commissions, whose functions will be absorbed by those remaining in the structure.
There will also be a greater percentage of women appointed to the commissions than in the past.
“My emphasis is on teamwork and commitment,” said Hansen. “One of the main aims of the new structure is to get people with different areas of expertise and experience working closely together and contributing to our projects. I believe that with fewer commissions there will be more meaningful interaction and it will lead to increases in the creativity and energy we need to get things done.
“We also want additional input from the Head Office, which will be responsible for implementing many of the recommendations that come out of the commissions, so we will be appointing staff members to be the deputy chairs for each commission. Part of their role will be to maintain pages on the European Athletics website so everyone can follow what the commissions are working on and how they are progressing.”
The new commission line-up agreed today is as follows:
- Member Federation Development Commission (Chair: Vice President Jean Gracia/FRA)
- Event & Competition Commission (Chair: Council member Toralf Nilsson/SWE)
- Business & Marketing Commission (Chair: Vice President Frank Hensel/GER)
- Strategic Communication Commission (Chair: Vice President Dobromir Karamarinov/BUL)
- Medical & Anti-doping Commission (Chair: Pedro Branco/POR)
- Athletes Commission (Chair: Gunther Weidlinger/AUT)
The discontinued commissions whose topics will be covered elsewhere are: Clubs, Cross Country, Education, Mountain Running, Race Walking and Reflection.
The total number of commission members has been reduced from 93 to 62.
Announcing the new line-up, Hansen said that the process of contacting all the nominated members to get their confirmation had already started and would be completed within a week or ten days.
Pointing out that the number of positions to be filled by women, previously 19%, has been increased to 25%, he added: “European Athletics has been working to raise awareness and promote women leaders at all levels of our sport for some years through our Women’s Leadership Awards, a number of innovative seminars and other measures. It was really gratifying to see how many federations responded to these efforts and saw fit to nominate women for positions.
“Even if we could not use everyone nominated right now, I am sure that both more men and more women will be appointed to the expert groups and project teams we will be setting up to support the commissions in the coming months.”
The review of the commission structure was one of the first items Hansen addressed with his new Executive Board following his election in April.
The complete membership and terms of reference for each commission will be announced by European Athletics as the information becomes available.