European Week of Sport (2016)

The European Week of Sport (EWoS) is a Commission-led initiative aiming at raising awareness of the benefits of sport practice and regular physical activity. 2016 marks the second edition of the Week. In 2015, valuable and reliable working structures were put in place. In 2016, these structures were reinforced and the Commission developed more content. As a result, the 2016 European Week of Sport was a truly European event, with over 15.000 activities and around 10 million active participants. The vast majority consisted of sport activities accessible to the public, while some centralised events, including the ones organised by the European Commission, consisted of conferences and seminars to raise further awareness about the Week. Even more Europeans (around 200 million) were potentially reached by the #BeActive message through an impressive Europe-wide media and social media campaign. In 2016, 33 national coordinators (as in 2015), 35 European partners (5 more than in 2015) and 26 Erasmus+ Sport project leaders have also been all accountable for the success of this second edition. The success of the 2016 Week was confirmed during the evaluation carried out in October 2016 by the European Commission, results of which are outlined in this report.

Key findings

In brief, in 2016: 

• the number of events and participants doubled compared to 2015, reaching over 15,000 events with 10 million active participants
• the number of sport organisations committed to supporting the Week (now 35 European partners) increased
• the strong visual branding created in 2015 was developed further with copyright-free photos provided for the use of all key players