On 6 and 7 December, EPAS (Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport) of the Council of Europe held a conference on integrity in sports together with the Italian Department for Sport within the framework of the Italian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This follows the important work carried out by EPAS and the Sports Conventions Division of the Council of Europe, in particular in the areas of:
- the preparation of integrity guidelines,
- combating the manipulation of sports competitions (the Macolin Convention), and also
- ensuring good governance in sport.
The aim of the conference was to outline and plan the next steps to be pursued by EPAS, the Macolin Committee and their partners in the three above-mentioned areas covered by the conference. This is the second Conference that EPAS organized this year, the first one having had taken place on 20 September on the topic of 'Diversity- Protecting and promoting the human rights of intersex and transgender athletes in sport'. The conference took place over two days and was composed of three panels:
- Towards a holistic approach to sports integrity
- Manipulation of sports manipulation
- Good governance
The panels were composed of many important actors from the sports, judicial and law enforcement sectors as well as government representatives. The first panel focused on international cooperation in the pursuit to globally preserve sports integrity through data sharing tools. The second panel focused on the Macolin convention, its benefits and the need for more countries to join to optimize the exchange of information to tackle modern challenges such as cryptocurrency in sport betting. The third panel focused on the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport (IPACS) and its promotion for good governance practices.