The Council of Europe, represented by the Secretariat of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), hosted and participated in the Steering Committee meeting of the International Partnership Against Corruption on Sport (IPACS), held on 5 May 2023 in Paris, France.
The Steering Committee agreed to:
- move forward with developing the IPACS strategy and have a dedicated working group review the draft document presented at the meeting;
- consolidate and further strengthen the prevention work stream;
- develop the information-sharing mechanisms through the UNODC networks;
- empower the IPACS partners to work with key stakeholders at national level and more strongly involve anti-corruption agencies; and
- customise and better distribute IPACS’ educational and informative anti-corruption tools, e.g. also for athletes.
During the previous annual IPACS meeting, held in November 2022, the three IPACS task forces had presented the outcomes of their respective work on Reducing the Risk of Corruption in Procurement, Integrity and Major Sport Events and Good Governance. From now on, the three task forces will be merged into one, which will be responsible for the implementation and promotion of the existing tools and for enhancing co-operation between law enforcement, criminal justice authorities and sports organisations.
Irena Guidikova, Head of the Children’s Rights and Sport Values Department, and Sophie Kwasny, Executive Secretary of EPAS, contributed to the exchanges on the new draft strategy for IPACS as well as a proposal on national roadmaps for sport integrity as a new IPACS action.
IPACS is an informal network bringing together intergovernmental organisations, international sports organisations and governments, combining the efforts of the various stakeholders in the fight against corruption in the governance of sport. It came about based on the knowledge that corruption in sport is a complicated and trans-border phenomenon, requiring urgent concerted effort at the international level between governments, intergovernmental organisations and sports organisations.
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