Internationales Fachmagazin für Spiel-, Sport- und Freizeitanlagen
On Friday May 13th 2011, the Federation of the European Play industry (FEPI) took once again part in the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. The EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health is self-described as a forum for European-level organisations, ranging from the food industry to consumer protection NGOs, World Health Organization and Member States representatives, willing to commit to tackling current trends in diet and physical activity. The idea is that, led by the Commission, the platform will provide an example of coordinated action on this problem by different parts of society that will encourage national, regional or local initiatives across Europe.
The topic of the meeting was the promotion of Physical Activity, along with a morning presentation of the Agricultural policy in relation to Nutrition.
This May 13th meeting of the Platform was the occasion for Mr Mark Hardy, Executive Vice President Europe of PlayPower, one of FEPI’s board members, to make a presentation on the subject of the commitment of FEPI to the Platform and more generally on the various recent projects FEPI took part in.
The first project tackled by FEPI’s presentation during the meeting was the Capital of Play Awards. This project, initiated by the French Play industry association (the APEAJ, Association pour l'Education et l'Apprentissage des Jeunes), had already been held on a number of occasions on a national level (the former project’s website is available on www.villeludique-et-sportive.fr) and FEPI took the initiative to widen its scope to other EU Nations, the aim being to promote more widely the concept of a town or City that endeavoured to improve the Play facilities for Children. The concept behind this free of charges competition is to reward the local authorities, communes or gathering of communes, developing state of the art installation policies for the equipment of playground areas for children.
Quite unsurprisingly, another important part of this presentation concerned the Practical Guidelines on the Promotion of Children’s Physical Activities (which remain available on http://www.citiesforsports.eu). Although not a partner to this most recent project, FEPI played a prominent role supporting and commenting on the first version of the Guidelines. Besides, a thourough presentation of the project and the role of FEPI as a contributor was quite recently presented in Playground@Landscape’s latest issue.
The afternoon presentation was on the whole very well received by the members of the Platform present during the meeting. The May 13th meeting of the Platform itself saw multiple presentations throughout the day regarding the commitments of the various participants and their external projects as well, much in the fashion of FEPI’s presentation.
Mr Hardy’s presentation before the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health came as an occasion to reassert the role of the Play Industry in promoting physical activity and to raising awareness of the importance of Play for general fitness and health of children and youth
