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1. National strategy(ies)

2. Promoting and supporting sport and physical activity among young people

3. Physical education in schools

4. Collaboration and partnerships

National strategy(ies)

Official document and timeframe

The National Youth Strategy 2024-2027 includes a specific objective on promoting health, with a planned measure for the development and diversification of the offer of services to attract young people to practice various sports, recreational and leisure activities. A National Sport Strategy for 2023-2032 is guideline document for the promotion of sport as a part of a healthy life for young people.

Main elements and key objectives

The specific objective of the National Youth Strategy 2024-2027 is planned in line with the EU Physical Activity Guidelines. however, no other details are planned.

The National Sport Strategy for 2023-2032 includes a specific objective refering to the promotion of sport as a national priority, with the at least 70% of children of 12-18 years old practicing sport regularly.

Target groups

While the National Youth Strategy 2024-2027 has a general target group represented by the young people, as defined by the Youth Law (Law no. 350/2006): people between the ages of 14 and 35; the National Sport Strategy for 2023-2032 has no specific target group among youth, but most of its objectives are beneficial for the development of youth sport, fitness and physical activity.

Government authority responsible for the implementation

The Ministry of Sport was the authority that managed the adoption of the National Sport Strategy for 2023-2032 and in July 2023 the Ministry has been reorganised as the National Agency for Sports. The Agency is also expected to contribute to the implementation of the National Youth Strategy 2024-2027 measure on the development and diversification of the offer of services to attract young people to practice various sports.

Monitoring/assessment/evaluation of the implementation of the strategy

No evidence-based monitoring/assessment/evaluation of the implementation of the National Youth Strategy 2015-2020 or the National Youth Strategy 2024-2027 has been published until March 2025.

No evidence-based monitoring/assessment/evaluation of the implementation of the national  National Sport Strategy for 2023-2032 until March 2025.

Major revisions/updates

Before the current National Youth Strategy 2024-2027, the National Youth Strategy 2015-2020 included a specific objective in the area of youth sport, fitness and physical activity. It included the aim of of fostering a healthy lifestyle and of developing active and responsible citizens through education on sports and physical activity, in line with the EU Physical Activity Guidelines. Planned results included:

1. Increase the number of children and young people who participate in sports, including by developing the mainstream sporting competition system (for all);
2. Ensure pupils and children access to sports facilities and offer young people the chance to spend their spare time in the existing sports facilities;
3. Maintain physical education as a mandatory subject matter and encourage pupils and students to practice a sport, and make physical education school classes more attractive by including sporting activities favoured by youngsters – fitness, aerobics;
4. Combat youth overweight and obesity through special fitness programmes;
5. Promote Romanian professional athletes as role models for young people;
6. Draw more on the opportunities created under European youth programmes in order to encourage the practice of sports, experience exchanges and training in education through sport;
7. Grasp the opportunities created under the ‘Europe for Citizens’ programme to support youth practice of sports at beginner level;
8. Ensure that increasingly more young people engage in moderate intensity physical activity for 30-60 minutes a day (including in sporting activities);
9. Attract young people with disabilities into practicing sports by offering them adequate access, including in properly equipped youth and student centres;
10. Create the conditions for the entities involved in youth education to ensure the practice of mainstream sports through community involvement in local, regional and national competitions.
     

Promoting and supporting sport and physical activity among young people

Sport and physical activities among the young people are promoted by the Sports for All Programme of the National Agency for Sports. The programme is granted to the National Federation of Sports for All and it was launched in 1998. Programmes objectives include:

• increasing the participation of the population, of all categories, to physical exercise;
• ensuring the specific conditions for the systematic practice of physical exercise by persons with special needs;
• increasing the number of people with special needs who regularly practice sport, appropriate to the needs of each category;
• promotion of permanent education in and through sport.

The Federation manages a small number of sports facilities opened to everybody, including to young people and organises sports events for unprofessional athletes. The most important of these sport events are organised during the BEACTIVE - the European Sports Week, in September every year since 2015.

According to the information provided for Youth Wiki by the National Federation of Sports for All, between 200 and 300 sport events have been organised in most of the Romanian counties every year in 2017, 2018 and 2019 during European Sports Week and again in 2022 and 2023. In 2016 the number of events was over 190, with about 37 000 participating unprofessional athletes and 1 750 volunteers for organising the events. Special physical distancing conditions applied in 2020 and 2021 to the events under BEACTIVE - the European Sports Week. However,over 100 events have been organised each year in 2020 and 2021.

The events of the Sports for All Federation have double purpose: encouraging participation in sport events and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle. These events have no specific target groups within the youth population, being in fact opened to young and older people, although the majority of the participants are young as observed in the multimedia materials published online by the Federation.

The budget for the Sports for All programme was 540 000 lei (about 120 000 Euro) in 2017 and 500 000 lei (about 110 000 Euro) in 2018, 2019 and 2020 according to the Ministry of Youth and Sports approved budget. Given the pandemic, the budget execution in 2020 was low and the budget allocation in 2021 was only 350 000 lei (about 70 000 Euro). For 2022 and 2023 the allocated budget was 500 000 lei (about 110 000 Euro). No other public funds are provided at national level for mass sport or youth sports activities.

According to the funding methodology for sports programmes of the National Agency for Sports, all National Federation, including the Sports for All federation, have to submit reports to the National Agency for Sports on activities and expenses, ensuring monitoring of the programme implementation and activities. But these reports are not made public.

Physical education in schools

Physical education is a mandatory subject in the curriculum in secondary education, including upper secondary education at national level. A total of 2 hours/week is included in the mandatory curricula. High schools can decide to add one hour/week in their curricula for physical education classes. The grading system is the same as in other compulsory subjects, based on a progression scale.

The Ministry of Education, through the Institute of Educations Science develops the  mandatory curricula, including mandatory competences and skills and activities to be carried out during physical educational classes.

Physical education is an optional class in tertiary education curriculum, including universities curriculums for all departments and faculties, for one hour/week, being therefore encouraged among young people, irrespective of their major specialisation of studies.

Within a project funded by the Norwegian and EEA Grants, the National Institute of Public Health developed in 2016 the Guidelines for Health Nutrition and Physical Activities in Schools and Kindergartens, covering activities that can also be implemented for young people in the secondary schools.

Collaboration and partnerships

No specific top-down policy initiatives aiming to encourage the formation of partnerships between formal education providers, youth workers, health professionals and sporting organisations have been developed in Romania, although both the Youth Strategy and the Sport Strategy include this objective. These partnerships can be developed as specific projects within the Sport for All Programme under the coordination of the National Federation of Sports for All.

Sport associations can be funded in schools and universities, according to the Physical Education and Sport Law no. 69/2000. They represent a real partnership for sport between youth sports professionals and schools. However, there is no policy encouraging the development of such associations. According to the law, they have no juridical personality, but schools can be funded by municipalities for the activities of their sport associations. The decision on funding sport activities in schools belongs to local or county councils and is totally autonomous.

Regarding sport private organisations, any private sport structure has to be registered in a public registry administered by the National Agency for Sport: the Sport Registry. Only the organisations recognised by the Sport Registry can apply for public funding and they are, also, possible dialogue partners for the policy makers. The Romanian law no. 52/2003 regulates decisional transparency and participation to policy making of all organisations. However, participation to decision making regarding sport policies is generally intermediated by sports federations, including the National Federation of Sports for All and the National Federation of School and University Sports.

Trade unions, employers and NGOs with activities relevant for the youth health participate in policy making using two main methods:

1. the participation mechanism provided by the law no. 52/2003 on decisional transparency (providing the obligation of any regulatory authority to publish draft legislation, to receive and analyse comments and amendments from citizens and to organise a public debate at demand of an NGO or other legally constituted organisations). Although the law provides for this mechanism, debates are rarely requested and organised (e.g. in total the Ministry of Youth and Sports published 34 projects for public consultation in 2019, 25 in 2020 and 17 in 2021, but didn't organised any debate).
2. the Economic and Social Council, a consultative body of the Parliament and the Government, organised as an autonomous tripartite public institution of national interest, having the function of an advisory board for all bills in the social or economic field.

There are three types of organisations participating to the Economic and Social Council:

1. nationally representative trade unions, according to the Law no. 367/2022 on social dialogue;
2. nationally representative employers’ associations, according to the Law no. 367/2022 on social dialogue;
3. NGOs appointed by the Minister of Labour, according to representation criteria. However, the criteria are not public but NGOs organised in the previous years to vote representatives proposed for nominations to the Minister of Labour. The National Youth Foundation and the Romanian National Alliance of Youth Organisations are represented in the Economic and Social Council.