The European Week of Sport 2025 Debrief Seminar gathered representatives from the European Commission, European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), National Coordinating Bodies and official partners of the European Week of Sport and the #BeActive campaign for a comprehensive reflection on this year’s implementation and future directions.

The event was held on 12 December in a hybrid format, with participants attending both in person in Brussels and online, ensuring broad accessibility and engagement. The European University Sports Association (EUSA) was represented both in person and online; with Andrej Pisl, Director of Policy and Projects, attending in person - and Salvatore Sisca, Head of Media and Communications, along with Hristina Hristova, Projects and Communications Officer, participating online.

The event opened with welcoming remarks from Giorgio Guazzugli Marini, Head of the Sport Unit at the European Commission, opening the session to insightful presentations, key updates, and collaborative conversations. In his remarks, he highlighted the successful 2025 European Week of Sport, noting the thousands of activities that took place, what went well, as well as the improvements, goals, and the ambition to foster more initiatives and further evolve the #BeActive campaign in the future.

An overview of the European Week of Sport 2025 was presented by Violeta Birzniece, Paola Ottonello, and Ajda Habjan of the Sport Unit, highlighting major achievements, engagement trends, and the evolving strategic focus of the initiative.

Violeta Birzniece provided a comprehensive overview of the 2025 EWoS, noting that 15,107,722 participants attended the 79,420 #BeActive events held across 39 countries in Europe, focusing also on the progress of the initiative in comparison to previous years.

Paola Ottonello covered the social media activation at the EU level, highlighting Instagram as one of the most active platforms for sharing content from the European #BeActive events. She also outlined plans for 2026 and 2027, focusing on the main changes to the initiative. Some of the novelties will officially be announced during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Participants then received updates from EACEA, delivered by Miguel Romero, which focused on the info session for the 2026-27 call for national coordinating bodies. He covered key information, including important deadlines, the submission system, eligibility criteria, main objectives, and priorities, while emphasising the importance of the green aspects of the activities and the focus themes. Mr Romero also reminded the participants of the concept of #BeActive Night, scheduled for 26-27 September 2026, highlighting the event’s emphasis on togetherness as it takes place simultaneously across different countries.

The updates were then followed by an interactive Q&A session led by Peter Fischer from the Sport Unit, encouraging dialogue on operational challenges and opportunities for improvement.

National good practices from Cyprus and Ireland (Move more - Scroll less campaign) provided national-level insights into successful practices and local adaptations of the key campaign’s objectives and components, as well as for the European recognition of both countries' initiatives.

After a break, the floor was given to new partners joining the network of official partners of the European Week of Sport this year, including Eurosport and the European Mountaineers, who shared their first experiences, motivations for participation, and perspectives on strengthening cross-sector collaboration.

The seminar concluded with an extended group work session, inviting all participants to reflect on lessons learned from the 2025 edition and to contribute recommendations for the 2026 European Week of Sport. This collective session underscored the shared commitment to enhancing the initiative’s impact, broadening participation across Europe, and fostering a more active and inclusive society.

As the continental umbrella body of university sport in Europe, EUSA (European University Sports Association) joined the European Week of Sport already in its very first year in 2015, actively promoting the #BeActive campaign and the importance of physical activity within the university sports community and beyond. University sport activities in Europe are often celebrated together with the International Day of University Sport and #LetsIDUS campaign. Also, the latest editions were very successful among our members: www.eusa.eu/2025-letsidus-and-beactive-celebrations-across-europe.

For more information about the European Week of Sport initiative by the European Commission and the #BeActive campaign, please see sport.ec.europa.eu/european-week-of-sport