Major decisions made at EA 2025 Congress in Tbilisi including agreement to relocate HQ to Belgrade
The European Aquatics 2025 Congress in Tbilisi approved a relocation agreement to move the federation’s headquarters from Nyon in Switzerland, where it has been located since 2015, to Belgrade.
The switch to the Serbian capital will be dependent on the Serbian Parliament passing a law to make the move legally possible. An Extraordinary Congress will subsequently be held to approve the final detailed contract.
President Antonio Silva said: “The process to consider creating moving to a new home for European Aquatics has taken a year to date and has been a fair and transparent process based on a rigorous methodology which assessed the value of offers based on the location’s accessibility, facilities, level of financial support, local conditions and quality of life.
“Negotiations between EA and prospective hosts were managed by an independent agency, Glendon Hill. I would like to thank the EA officers and bureau members Arno Pajek and Erik van Heijningen who formed a task force to manage the complex process, and EA Vice President Vanja Udovicic, who helped facilitate negotiations with the Serbian authorities.
“The agreement accepted proposes a rent-free 500 square metre office in a city centre location and access to aquatic facilities as well as guaranteed hosting fees for 10 years (with an option to extend by five more).
“The Congress delegates gave the green light to complete the necessary legal steps so that we may have a final contract to sign off on in the coming months.”
The Congress in Tbilisi marked an extraordinary year of achievement both in terms of athletic performance and development of the sport.
Speaking the day after the staging of a second hugely influential Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Forum, Silva gave a report of the Bureau which highlighted the spectacular success of European competitors at the World Aquatics Championships.
He also detailed the increasingly influential contributions being made by the European Aquatics Academy (EAA), the Aquatic Social Responsibility (ASR) projects and the DEI Commission, which is to be expanded to include Integrity in addition to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Silva saluted the “stand-out performances” of European athletes in Singapore, pointing out that there had been an increase in the percentage of medals gained in comparison to the Paris 2024 Games.
Moving on to the theme of development, Silva commented: “In the space of the past year European Aquatics has taken huge strides in the ambitious transformation of our sport.
“Our three new beacons of achievement are now shining brightly within the European Aquatics community.
“We are also progressing on all fronts in the delivery of our innovative and all-encompassing Strategic Plan.”
Silva’s presentation on development celebrated what he has hailed as the “monumental” achievement represented by the launch of the EAA’s dedicated Digital Education Platform which will soon be supplemented by an EA Innovation Hub to promote and support ideas for transforming the sport.
The President went on to offer a summary of the extensive range of clinics organised within the last year by the EAA for coaches, officials, athletes, and national federations, many of which were co-funded by World Aquatics.
Within the realm of ASR, 14 national federations have already applied to become part of the certification process for the Swim Safe Europe initiative, which will organise a clinic on October 3 and a Europe Conference from November 28 to 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile the AquaSafe Kids (Erasmus+) Project has received approval from the European Commission. This initiative, funded through Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships, will run for 36 months with a total budget of 400,000 euros.
In the area of DEI, July 4 saw the signing of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between EA and Special Olympics, and discussions are also underway between EA and Para Swimming.
Last weekend’s EA Open Water Swimming Cup leg 4 in Barcelona featured the introduction of racing for Special Olympics athletes within the competition.
An MoU was also signed with the Fundazione Collodi (Pinocchio) to help foster water safety awareness.
A total of 31 national federations were honoured at the EA Congress for signing up to the DEI Charter.
Let’s Swim Together, a joint initiative between EA and EPAM systems, is under development starting off with the involvement of the Swiss, Dutch, German, Hungarian and British national federations.
Over the course of the season a total of 17 EA events applied a range of environmental measures as they worked towards Blue Wave Certification within the Sustainability Charter.
In other highlights from the Bureau report, delegates were informed that EA will co-ordinate timetables for European Championship events in 2026 and 2028 with European Athletics and European Gymnastics with the long-term ambition to have the Championships in a joint location by 2030.
It was also noted that Water Polo had made an historic agreement to sell media rights for the Men’s Water Polo Champions’ League competition starting from the 2024-2025 season.
Representatives of the Athletes Committee were present at the Congress, with Britain’s former world champion backstroke swimmer Liam Tancock elected as chair (and therefore Bureau member) and Spain’s retired artistic swimmer Emma Garcia as vice-chair.
They, together with Committee secretary Oliver Dingley (a former diver from Ireland) were present in the Congress Hall and the entire committee, which includes representatives from each aquatics discipline, was formally elected.
In other important agenda items, delegates approved the 2024 financial and audit report. The 2025 financial estimate and outlook for the three following years until 2028 were presented, showing that EA has financial stability and potential for growth.
Congress also approved Bureau proposals to make amendments to the Constitution regarding the possibility of opening new legal entities for European Aquatics as well as changes to its Integrity Unit and Integrity Code.
The latter would ensure that there would be independence of action from the unit, avoiding any apparent conflicts of interest.
Congress heard progress reports from the hosts of upcoming major events (Lublin 2025, Belgrade 2026 and Funchal 2026) as well as an overview of the calendar of events coming up next year.
The first EA Junior High Diving Championships will be organised next year in Budapest from July 2 to 3.
The Hungarian capital will also host the EA Junior Open Water Swimming Championships from July 23 to 26 and the EA Junior Diving Championships from June 22 to 28.
Germany will host the 2026 EA Junior Swimming Championships from July 7 to 12 and the EA Junior Artistic Swimming Championships from June 29 to July 3. The EA Youth Artistic Swimming Championships will be held in Luxembourg from June 4 to 7.
Congress also elected two new Honorary Members: Hortensia Graupera and Alfonso Wucherpfennig – both from Spain – for their long and dedicated service to the respective sports of artistic swimming and swimming. Both gave valued service as active members of Technical Committees over many years.
Finally, Congress received a detailed and engaging report from the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA), represented by a delegation led by its President Ram Barakai, as they looked ahead to ongoing collaboration with EA.
Their next European Championship takes place in Molveno, Italy in February 2026 and there are hopes of breaking the last participation record of 750 swimmers from 48 countries and including a new 4x100m ice swimming event exclusively for Olympic athletes.
Watch the 2025 recap here.
And photos of the Congress below:
Photos of Speakers
General Photos
Congress Gala
Congress Registration
Congress Photos Link 1
Congress Photos Link 2
Congress Photos Link 3
When publishing them, please use the credit: European Aquatics/Tamuna Kulumbegashvili
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
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