News

Representatives of EURO-MEI/UNI-Europa and EASE, the European Association of Sports Employers, met on 10 July for a first formal meeting with the European Commission since the two groups wrote to the Commission requesting eventual recognition as a Social Dialogue Committee for the sports sector as a conclusion to the RBT project EURO-MEI and EASE carried out together previously. The Commission expressed itself as very favourable to the request, pending further steps such as establishing the two sides’ representativity in the sector. The groups met with Jackie Morin, head of unit of Social Dialogue-Industrial Relations, and with Michal Krejza, head of unit of EAC D-3 Sport, among others.



Two days earlier, a delegation from UNI, UNI-Europa and UNI-MEI/EURO-MEI, including UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings, went to Paris to meet with affiliates, applicants and other unions and associations in the sports sector in France to try to better understand the organisational structure and collective bargaining in the sector. The group also met with representatives of COSMOS, the French sports’ employers’ organisation, which hosts the office of EASE.



EURO-MEI and EASE are now preparing the first conference of a new project sponsored by the Commission which will take place in the United Kingdom, 30-31 October, on the subject of individual work contracts in the sector. The new project (CC-Project) is to last a year and is seen as a transition or bridge to an official social dialogue committee before or not much later than the end of 2009.