{"id":14711,"date":"2025-12-11T14:54:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T14:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/?p=14711"},"modified":"2026-01-23T15:17:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:17:44","slug":"final-conference-of-the-sopros-project-brussels-9th-december-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/final-conference-of-the-sopros-project-brussels-9th-december-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Conference of the SOPROS Project, Brussels 9th December 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Tuesday, 9 December, the Erasmus + sport project SOPROS<\/strong><\/a> Team, where University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law was represented by Assoc. Prof. Vanja Smokvina, concluded the Final Conference of the SOPROS project at the European Parliament in Brussels: a milestone moment bringing together MEPs, European institutions, sport organisations, athlete representatives, researchers, and social partners to discuss the future of athletes\u2019 social protection in Europe.

The conclusions of the Conference were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Social protection must become a structural part of sport<\/strong>
In the opening remarks, MEP Bogdan Zdrojewski emphasised that athletes\u2019 rights will play a significant role in the next Erasmus+<\/strong> cycle, with growing political commitment at EU level.

The SOPROS team presented the project\u2019s three phases (Assessing, Evaluating, Implementing) and highlighted the major gaps identified across Europe, including: conditionality, the ambiguous role of the state, fragmentation, limited athlete participation, and insufficient transparency and education.

2. The SOPROS Declaration was signed and is now open for endorsements<\/strong>
A key moment was the signing of the SOPROS<\/strong> Declaration<\/strong><\/a> by European Athletes and Players Association<\/strong><\/a>, EASE – European Association of Sport Employers<\/strong><\/a>, European Olympic Academies (EOA)<\/strong><\/a>, and the academic partners. It outlines seven calls and the partners’ commitments to strengthen legislation, improve coordination, foster social dialogue, and enhance education around athletes\u2019 rights: an important step toward common European standards. The Declaration is open to endorsements and can be accessed here \u25b6<\/a>\ufe0f https:\/\/lnkd.in\/dA_WpXT9<\/strong><\/a>

3. EU-level momentum is growing – but implementation must happen nationally<\/strong>
In his keynote, MEP Hannes Heide<\/strong><\/a> highlighted the urgency of the topic: \u201cSport is built on people, not money.\u201d He stressed key priorities such as fair contracts, transparency, adequate remuneration, minimum EU-wide standards, and ensuring that athletes have a seat at the table in all relevant discussions.

He also noted that findings from SOPROS will inform future work in both the European Parliament and the European Commission.

4. Panel discussion<\/strong>
Speakers from the European Commission<\/strong><\/a> Sport Unit, EuroHockey<\/strong><\/a>, European Athletes and Players Association<\/strong><\/a>, the European Parliament<\/strong><\/a>, and the Council of Europe<\/strong><\/a> highlighted worker status as the basis for protection, the value of EU projects like SOPROS in \u201cconnecting the dots\u201d, the need for social dialogue and collective bargaining, clearer responsibilities and modern governance, and a rights-based approach for future reforms.

\u2757 The consensus: no single actor can improve athletes\u2019 protection alone.\u2757

5. What comes next?
<\/strong>Head of the Project, Prof. Juergen Mittag<\/strong> noted that awareness has grown, but progress now depends on prioritisation, coordination, and whether countries choose soft governance or regulatory reform. Europe could become a blueprint for athletes\u2019 social protection, but implementation<\/strong> will be decisive.

The SOPROS project may be ending – but the work is only beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are honoured that the member of our staff, Assoc. Prof. Vanja Smokvina signed the Declaration on behalf of the Academic partners of the SOPROS Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pictures gallery<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Tuesday, 9 December, the Erasmus + sport project SOPROS Team, where University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law was represented by Assoc. Prof. Vanja Smokvina, concluded the Final Conference of the SOPROS project at the European Parliament in Brussels: a milestone moment bringing together MEPs, European institutions, sport organisations, athlete representatives, researchers, and social partners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":14696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[347,356],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","category-zavod-za-sportsko-pravo-politike-u-sportu-i-sportsku-diplomaciju"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sopros1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Paula \u010calogovi\u0107","author_link":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/author\/paula-calogovic\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14712,"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14711\/revisions\/14712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pravri.uniri.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}