Newsroom

Back Child safeguarding in sport in Bulgaria: second round table

The Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) and the Bulgarian Ministry of Youth and Sports co-organised the second national round table in the framework of the Start to Talk project. The event was held on 19 September 2023 in Sofia with the aim to present the draft roadmap for an effective implementation of the child safeguarding in sport policy and of Child Safeguarding Officer (CSO) roles at national level, and to discuss the next steps.

The meeting was opened by Daniela Dasheva, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, and Francine Raveney, Deputy Executive Secretary of EPAS, who gave an update on the Ministry and the Council of Europe’s efforts to create safer sport environments.

Elena Casero, Senior Project Officer at EPAS, presented the Start to Talk project and the journey towards the development of the roadmap. The draft roadmap was presented to the project’s Steering Committee and observer organisations by the working group made up of four national and international experts: Bruno Avelar and Miguel Nery (Qantara Sports), Petya Koseva (Bulgarian Ministry of Youth and Sports) and Petya Dimitrova (independent consultant).

Maria Belichovska, Senior Expert at the Bulgarian State Agency for Child Protection, and Elena Casero reported on the child consultation session that took place on 30 May 2023, aimed at gathering young people’s ideas on how to implement more efficient child safeguarding policies in sport in Bulgaria. Melanie Lang was the child participation expert for the project.

Irena Guidikova, Head of the Children´s Rights and Sport Values Department of the Council of Europe, closed the event by emphasising the importance of the collaborative approach of the project, which has enabled participation of the relevant stakeholders in the protection of children in sport in Bulgaria.

Start to Talk assists national authorities responsible for sport in the production of country-specific roadmaps for an effective development and implementation of child safeguarding in sport policies, including concrete steps to set up Child Safeguarding Officer (CSO) roles in sport.

Programme