Brussels, 1st June 2022
After two days of intense workshops in Vienna, FESI successfully consulted its membership on what is to become the Federation’s strategic development plan for the next three years. From policy priorities to members’ services and membership expansion, FESI is currently working on a new development strategy to best support the sporting goods industry in Brussels and deliver value to its members until 2025 and beyond.
Commenting on the two days of workshops, which took place under the patronage of FESI’s Austrian association VSSÖ in Vienna, FESI Secretary General Jérôme Pero declared: “I am thrilled that we were able to gather so many of our members in Vienna for this strategic workshop. After two years of a pandemic that severely affected our sector and the way we operate, this meeting clearly shows how invested our members remain in FESI and how critical the work we do for them in Brussels is for their business. Thanks to these two days of discussions, we managed to shed light on new opportunities for the future which will help us better face the challenges affecting our industry and hopefully bring new members on board at FESI”.
In view of the increasing number of European policy initiatives and the growing challenges facing the sporting goods industry business models and supply chains, FESI members agreed on the degree of engagement of the FESI Secretariat on the different priority topics of the Federation. In the coming months, the focus in terms of international trade will be given to the negotiation of the EU-Indonesia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Indeed, this FTA should allow for increased sustainable trade and investment between the EU and Indonesia. On the digital area, one of FESI’s policy priorities will be oriented towards e-labelling, to facilitate the tagging of sports articles, reduce the industry’s environmental impact and facilitate information to the consumer in a harmonized single market. Finally, in view of the EU’s extensive sustainability agenda, the members present in Vienna decided that the FESI secretariat shall focus its engagement on the recent corporate sustainability due diligence initiative which is expected to have significant implications for the supply chain management of many brands[1]. The cornerstone of FESI’s engagement will be to convince policy-makers to streamline policy developments in an effective manner and to avoid redundancy and the fragmentation of the EU market[2].
FESI members also discussed about the future #StrongHer campaign on promoting sport and physical activity among young girls. It was an opportunity to sneak peek at the new StrongHer website which will be officially unveiled to the public in the coming weeks, along with the publication of the Manifesto.
The fruitful discussions will now enable the FESI secretariat to draw up a new development plan for the next three years, which will officially be adopted by all the members during FESI General Assembly at ISPO Munich on 29 November. Once implemented, the new plan should help further strengthen FESI’s presence in Brussels and make it the leading platform representing the entire European sporting goods sector.
[1] For more information, see FESI’s response to the Commission’s consultation on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: https://fesi-sport.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/20220520-FESI-position-on-the-CSDDD-Final18.pdf
[2] For more information, see FESI joint letter on the “Transition to a Circular Economy and protection of the Single Market”: https://fesi-sport.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Joint-Industry-Letter-on-Single-Market-Distortions-May-2022.pdf
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Contact: Ariane Gatti, FESI Communication Manager / [email protected] / +32 274 08 94
