Europe Direct has participated at the initiative organized in the field of the VeniceMarathon that took place on Sunday, October 22nd, 2023. 

Europe Direct was present at the VeniceMarathon, at the initiatives both of Family Run on October 20th in particular, the non-competitive run on a track made of 3,5 km that brings together young people, families, and all those who want to spend a day of health and fun, and of ExpoSport on October 21st, the sports and free time fair and meeting point for the marathon runners for the bib pickup at San Giuliano Park in Mestre Blue Door (timeline: Friday October 20th from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, Saturday October 21st from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm). 

The initiatiative's aim was to promote the values that the European Union gives to sport as an instrument of social integration and intercultural dialogue, as an occasion to spread notions of peace, tolerance, reciprocal comprehension. 
Education and Sport represent 2 key sectors to encourage an harmonic development of young people's personality, to build patterns of aggregation and identity, to give emotional and effective insights linked to symbols of belonging. 

The strong and purposeful message that is meant to transmit to young people is that sport must be perceived as an "additional and transversal competence" to enhancing and harmonizing inherent values like the fair-play, overcoming oneself, team spirit, tolerance, to better live everyday life. 

The EU aims to transmit, through sport, educational and social values to spread them among the citizens, as it was wished in the White Book of the Sport, adopted in 2007 by the European Commission with the aim of giving strategic orientation to the role of sport in Europe, encouraging debate and raising awareness of the needs and peculiarities of the sector. 

Since 2008, Europe Direct of the Municipality of Venice participates in sporting events dedicated to young people, such as, on this occasion, the initiatives linked to the VeniceMarathon, such as ExpoSport and FamilyRun.