Minister Kamil Bortniczuk appointed as a member of the Foundation Board of the World Anti Doping Agency
15.05.2023
During its meeting in Brussels today, the EU Council for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport unanimously approved Polish Minister of Sport and Tourism Kamil Bortniczuk’s candidacy for the European Union representative in the Foundation Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). His three-year term of office will begin on 1 July 2023.
Minister Bortniczuk participated in the meeting together with EU Member States’ ministers of sport as well as a delegation from Ukraine led by Andrei Chesnokov, Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports. One of the key issues discussed at the meeting was human rights in the context of major sports events.
As an absolute priority in this regard, Minister Bortniczuk argued for the exclusion of representatives of Russia and Belarus from international sports events for representing the aggressor country and the regime that supports it. During the discussion, Minister Bortniczuk emphasized that this position, adopted by a coalition of states, does not constitute discrimination against people on the basis of their passport.
“I want to reiterate resoundingly that the Russian government, which has broken the Olympic Truce twice, must not be allowed to use sport to legitimize its barbaric and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. We do not consent to the participation of athletes from Russia together with athletes from Ukraine in international sports events in view of the ongoing destruction of Ukraine, including its sports infrastructure, caused by Russia's freely chosen, unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine, supported by the Belarusian government,” Minister Bortniczuk said.
The minister also asserted that countries that fail to respect the human right to live in an independent and secure country cannot be either organizers of international sporting events or participants therein.
"Poland is an example of a country organizing an international sports event which promotes the Olympic movement’s most cherished values and in which basic human rights are respected, as evidenced by our decision not to allow representatives of Russia and Belarus to participate in sports events of the Thrid European Games in Kraków and Małopolska in 2023.”
The Third European Games will be held on 21 June – 2 July 2023. The Games will be hosted by Małopolska Voivodeship and the City of Kraków. Sports events will be held in the following cities of Małopolska: Kraków, Tarnów, Krynica-Zdrój, Zakopane, Nowy Targ, Nowy Sącz, Oświęcim, Myślenice and Krzeszowice. Sports events will also be held in other cities of southern Poland: Bielsko-Biała, Chorzów, Wrocław and Rzeszów.
more information at: https://www.malopolska.pl/igrzyska-europejskie-krakowmalopolska-2023
