Social Dialogue in Europe for Professional Sports (SDE Pro Sports)

The project SDE Pro Sport deals with the socio-political framework conditions of professional sport and the negotiations between the social partners. In particular, the project aims to develop and promote social dialogue in professional sport in EU countries by producing a guide for the establishment of social dialogue in sport.

In its first project phase, the project undertakes a a review of the social policy achievements to date and sheds light on the agreements and collective contracts reached so far in the EU countries in the field of sport. On this basis, a guideline will be created that identifies and analyzes the procedures that have been tested to date and the agreements that have been reached.

This project step will be carried out by the Institute for European Sport Development and Leisure Research of the German Sport University Cologne, which will work on the conceptual and empirical framework of the project in cooperation with the European Association of Sport Employers (EASE) and the European Elite Athletes Association (EU-Athletes). Both EASE and EU-Athletes will bring their members into the project, all of whom are social partner organizations.

The second part of the project will focus on responding to the European Commission's call for the promotion of social dialogue in Europe at sectoral level and the development of European social dialogue. The related objective of the SDE Pro Sport project is to encourage professional sports stakeholders in countries where collective agreements do not exist to take up relevant issues and create a momentum for social dialogue in the sector. The aim is to provide the actors (employers' and employees' associations) of the social dialogue in professional sport with a method to promote and support the development of professional sport through social dialogue.

Definition of Social Dialogue in Professional Sport