Several motions have been submitted to the EHF Congress 2021 and were decided upon on Friday.

Five of them relate to the statutes of the European Handball Federation, seven to different parts of the federation’s legal and competition regulations.

Motions relating to statutes

Motion #1

The first motion at hand moves to adapt the name of the EHF Court of Arbitration to ‘European Handball Court of Arbitration’. The target of the suggestion is to make the court more accessible for a broader public and ensure increased trustfulness and reachability.

[Update 23 April, 17:10 hrs]: The motion was approved by the EHF Congress. It will be valid with immediate effect as of the end of the Congress.

Motion #2

The second motion moves to install the position of a Substitute Initiator of Proceedings. The Initiator of Proceedings shall be responsible for ensuring a fair balance in all legal proceedings conducted within the EHF.

In case of neutrality conflicts, reasons of bias, or unavailability the Substitute Initiator of Proceedings shall assume responsibility.

[Update 23 April, 17:14 hrs] The motion was approved by the EHF Congress. It will be valid with immediate effect as of the end of the Congress.

Motion #3

The third motion proposes to grant the competence to amend the Catalogue of Administrative Sanctions to the EHF Executive Committee, as it is already the case for the List of Penalties.

[Update 23 April, 17:19 hrs] The motion was rejected by the EHF Congress.

Motion #4

Motion #4 moves to amend the EHF Statutes in order to formally establish the option of organising meetings, conferences and congresses by video conferencing systems.

[Update 23 April, 17:23 hrs] The motion was approved by the EHF Congress. It will be valid with immediate effect as of the end of the Congress.

Motion #5

The fifth motion has been submitted by the Hungarian Handball Federation. It aims to amend the EHF Statutes with regards to the nomination of the ‘Member Refereeing’ in the Competitions Commission.

In the motion’s words the ‘Member Refereeing’ in the Competitions Commission shall be nominated by the EHF Executive Committee based on a scope of skills and experiences. Furthermore, the EHF Executive Committee shall be instructed to set-up a revised refereeing structure consisting of an extended number of professionals in the EHF Office, which form a refereeing department.

[Update 23 April, 17:28 hrs]: The motion was put on hold and a strategy for a revised refereeing structure will be worked on with the involvement of the EHF. It is intended that this strategy will be presented at EHF Congress 2023.

Motions relating to regulations

Motion #6

The sixth motion targets the facilitation of the daily working process of the Court of Arbitration Council by enabling the ECA Council President to arrange meetings of the ECA Council members via tele or video conferencing systems.

[Update 23 April, 17:31 hrs]: The motion was approved. It will be valid with immediate effect as of the end of the Congress.

Motion #7

The seventh motion which has submitted in two parts moves to delete the criterion of incompatibility between holding a function within the International Handball Federation and the possibility of being appointed to the list of ECA arbitrators.

Furthermore, it moves to entitle the ECA Council to remove arbitrators from the list of ECA, who are no longer fulfilling the applicable criteria set out in the ECA Statutes.

[Update 23 April, 17:34 hrs]: The motion was approved. It will be valid with immediate effect as of the end of the Congress.

Motion #8

In motion #8, the EHF Executive Committee motions to amend the ECA Procedural Rules in order to explicitly specify the liability of persons being involved in ECA proceedings in connection with their decision-making process.

[Update 23 April, 17:36 hrs]: The motion was approved. It will be valid with immediate effect as of the end of the Congress.

Motion #9

The motions #9, #10 and #11 have been submitted by the Norwegian Handball Federation.

Motion #9 proposes to foresee the creation of documentations of refereeing quality of each couple and the representation of both genders in the nomination for each EHF EURO.

[Update 23 April, 17:48 hrs]: The Norwegian Handball Federation will provide an additional statement related to their motion. 

[Update 24 April, 10:36 hrs] The Norwegian Handball Federation presented an additional statement on Saturday outlining that the referees nominated for an EHF EURO shall be the best available and shall be nominated irrespective of their gender. This statement was accepted by the EHF Congress.  

Motion #10

In motion #10, the Norwegian Handball Federation moves to amend the conditions for participants in European club competitions. It proposes to distribute/redistribute the fund and income from the men’s European club competitions and the women’s European club competitions jointly and in harmonious way to men’s and women’s European club competitions. The intention is to reduce the gap between the male and female competitions at the economic level and in order to ensure equality and enable parallel development of both men and women in European club competitions.

[Update 23 April, 18:01 hrs] The motion was rejected by the EHF Congress.

Motion #11

In its third motion submitted (motion #11), the Norwegian Handball Federation moves to amend the EHF Beach Handball Regulations with regards to the requirements of athletes’ uniforms in official competitions.

The Norwegian Handball Federation finds that the current uniform in female beach handball competitions constitutes a barrier and limits the access to the sport beach handball.

The EHF shall be instructed to work out conditions for female athletes’ uniforms helping athletes to enhance their performance. The amended requirements shall be afterwards implemented to the EHF Beach Handball Regulations.

Furthermore, the EHF shall be instructed by the EHF Congress to raise the topic with the IHF and support/initiate the necessary steps for the respective changes in IHF Regulations.

[Update 23 April, 18:10 hrs] The motion will be transferred to the newly elected Beach Handball Commission. The commission will work on a concept to approach this matter which will subsequently be tabled to the EHF Executive Committee which will then deal further with this matter.

Motion #12

In motion #12, the Israeli Handball Association proposes to establish criteria for awarding Younger Age Category (YAC) events. This is aimed to ensure optimised conditions and a more balanced distribution of the organisation right for YAC events and to avoid that the same federations host YAC competitions over several years. It is proposed to establish guidelines including specific criteria for the awarding of the events by the EHF Executive Committee.

[Update 23 April, 18:13 hrs] The motion was withdrawn by the Israeli Handball Federation.

Election mode for gender representative

Motion #13

A 13^th motion was submitted by the European Handball Federation and came into effect already on Friday ahead of the elections for the EHF Executive Committee.

Following its approval, the election mode for the gender representatives for the 2021 elections of further members/gender representative was adapted. As a result, the EHF Executive Committee consists of three additional members and one further representative for the period 2021 to 2025