2019 European Rowing Confederation General Assembly

Delegates from 30 European Member Federations assembled for this annual assembly at the Radisson Blu hotel in Lucerne. 

Ryszard Stadniuk (POL) was re-elected for a two-year period as Chair of the ERC and, consequently, the European Rowing Board (ERB). Eva Szanto (HUN) was re-elected for a four-year period as a member of the ERB, one of the four directly elected members, one each year. In addition, the three representatives proposed by the FISA Council for the ERB, Patrick Rombaut (BEL), Algirdas Raslanas (LTU) and Dusan Machacek (CZE) were elected for a two-year period.

The ERB announced that Annamarie Phelps (GBR) would serve as Deputy Chair and Eva Szanto would serve as Secretary of the ERB.

The ERB also announced that an Extraordinary General Assembly would be held on Sunday afternoon, 1 September 2019 in Linz-Ottensheim, Austria for the purpose of attributing the 2021 to 2024 European Senior, Under 23 and Junior Championship events. This is the afternoon before the 2019 FISA Ordinary Congress which takes place on Monday, 2 September 2019. The assembly then focused on the 2022 multi-sport European Championships event that would be the next edition following the very successful 2018 multi-sport European Championships held in Glasgow and Berlin.

Many discussions have taken place over the past two years and the delegates were presented with the latest situation, described below:

“FISA/European Rowing Board Statement on 2022 multi-sport European Championships

The European Rowing Board and FISA are working closely and cooperatively with the key stakeholders preparing the 2022 European Championships multi-sport event now planned for August 2022. Discussions and negotiations are currently in process with the City of Munich as well as the European Broadcasting Union and the European Championships Management. Due to the sensitivity of these discussions, the six sports have been asked not to comment publicly until the discussions are concluded successfully. There is every indication that these discussions are going well.

 We assure you that FISA and rowing’s key stakeholders are investigating all possible solutions to include rowing in 2022, including changes to the 2022 international calendar (with the FISA Council) and finalising the format of the European Championships event. It is our intention to find a way to offer a competition opportunity for non-European teams that are in Europe preparing for the World Championships. We can confirm that the City of Munich and the Munich Regatta Committee are prepared to host the event at the standards required of all our European Championships organising committees.

At this point in time, we ask for attribution of the 2022 European Rowing Championships to Munich, subject to the successful conclusion of a number of parallel issues which touch the whole sport.

We hope to be able to announce a successful conclusion of these parallel issues near the end of June, along with full information.”

– European Rowing Board and the FISA Council, 1 June 2019

The delegates were then asked to vote on this provisional attribution to Munich, GER, subject to the conditions expressed above, and the vote was unanimously in favour.

The ERB reviewed the progress on the ERC Strategic Framework project and called a European NF Conference for Thursday evening, 21 November 2019 in London, Great Britain, the evening before the FISA NF Conference and during the World Rowing Coaches Conference. Finally, the ERB asked the approval of the delegates to confer “Honorary ERB membership” to Roland Weill (MON), who retired due to the age limit last year, in recognition of his outstanding service to European Rowing over his ten year membership of the ERB. The delegates agreed by acclamation.

The next European Rowing Confederation General Assembly will take place in Poznan, Poland on Saturday, 13 June 2020.