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With the significant help and excellent organisation of the Hungarian Canoe Federation, the 17th Ordinary Congress of the European Canoe Association concluded in Budapest. This congress was historic in several ways. Moira Aston became the first woman to hold this position in the history of the European governing body, which was founded in 1993. Delegates also supported the proposal to change the name of the association. The European Canoe Association, upon approval of the proposal, became Paddle Europe. However, the name change will not be immediate, as this year, which has already begun the competitive season, will serve as a transitional period. Official event names in 2025 will still use the ECA acronym. With this name change, the European Canoe Association follows the example of the International Canoe Federation, which will also be rebranded as Paddle Worldwide.

 

Moira Aston, Chief Executive of Canoeing Ireland and a board member of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, became the new Vice-President of ECA, now Paddle Europe, making her the first woman in this position.

 

“I am absolutely delighted to be the first female Vice-President of Paddle Europe as it is now. A lot of change happened today, a really fantastic board and place, and a very progressive organisation. To be in at this level in an organisation like this means everything to me. I am absolutely delighted. I would always focus on inclusivity, and it isn’t just gender; there is more to it than gender. There are different abilities. I think everyone needs to be able to bring what they need to bring to the Boardroom table in an open and welcoming way,” Aston said after her election.

 

She further emphasized: “I am really excited about this afternoon’s presentations, from Special Olympics and from Gabrielle (recreational canoeing and educational programmes, editor's note). They are areas that will really support the work of the competitive disciplines. If you have that broad base, you have a really strong pyramid base, and everything will feed up eventually into competitive disciplines and the competitive environment. But to start with that broad base, we need to be engaging with participation and the outdoors. Everything that was said was so relevant to where we are now in the world. I honestly believe the unifying capacity for sport in creating an environment, where the disagreements are sorted out in a fair way, and if we could just establish that in the general environment around us, it would be absolutely fabulous. These are the areas that make me particularly interested at the moment.”

 

In addition to the new Vice-President, the European Canoe Association also welcomed five new members to the Board of Directors. They are Greg Smale from Great Britain, Stien Verlinden from Belgium, Vitor Felix from Portugal, Peter Karai from Hungary, and Christian Jacobsen from Denmark. Smale, Verlinden, Felix, and Karai were given a four-year mandate, while Jacobsen has a two-year term. Aston and Karai were elected as representatives of the ECA in the ICF Board.

 

During the congress, delegates supported several proposals, including the planned Sport Programme, Membership fees, Development Programme, and budgets for 2025 and 2026, as well as partial amendments to the statute related to the name change of the organisation. They also reviewed plans for the development of recreational and educational programmes, presented by Gabriele Koch, ECA Recreational Technical Committee Chair, and Special Olympics, presented by Matteo Secchi. In the coming months, ECA faces another significant milestone: its move from Zagreb, its previous headquarters, to Paris.

 

Jean Zoungrana, President of Paddle Europe, said after the congress: “As always in a congress, we have the usual topics, such as the budget, membership fees, and so on, but we introduced some new items to share our reflections on Paddle Europe economic model, development programme, the sport programme, activity with disabled people, and recreational activities. It was important to have those moments. At the same time, we had a historic moment with the decision to change the name of the ECA to Paddle Europe. It is an important day, a historical day for us. I would like to say ‘Long life to Paddle Europe now’!”

 

He also expressed his excitement about the new members of the Board of Directors: “We have a dream team to conduct our projects. I am very happy, as one of my objectives was also to have more gender equity within the European Canoe Association. Now, with a female Vice-President, it is a good signal for our community that we need to move forward and have more gender equity in our bodies.”

 

After the congress, a gala dinner followed, during which President Jean Zoungrana, together with ECA Honorary Life President Albert Woods OBE, thanked two long-standing members of the European canoeing family. Former Secretary General Branko Lovrić and long-time Vice-President Miroslav Haviar were appointed as Honorary Board Members of the ECA in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the sport. With this congress, Ruud Heijselaar, who will remain ECA Canoe Marathon Technical Committee Chair, and Jovana Stanojevic, who stepped down prematurely as a Board Member after being appointed ECA Sport and Event Manager, also concluded their time as members of the Board of Directors. Stanojevic is also the ECA Canoe Sprint Technical Committee Chair. The President Jean Zoungrana took the opportunity to thank the Presidents of the Hungarian and Turkish Canoe Federations, who organised the last two congresses.