Badminton Europe hosted its annual BEC Congress in Horsens, Denmark, on 22–23 April alongside the BWF Annual General Meeting and the Thomas & Uber Cup Finals. As a result, this year’s Congress had a different setup than usual and was held in a shorter and more compact format over fewer days.
As always, the BEC Congress consisted of three key elements: the Forum, the Annual Delegates’ Meeting (ADM) and the Awards Ceremony, bringing together the European badminton family for discussions, decision-making and celebrations of the sport.
Forum
This year’s Forum was shorter than usual and lasted just under three hours. The main focus of the Forum was the presentations from the candidates running for the BEC Board of Directors, with each candidate given five minutes to present themselves and their vision.
The candidates were:
- Kelly Aston (Wales)
- Robbert de Kock (Switzerland)
- Michael Fyrie-Dahl (Norway)
- Catherine Le Saint (France)
- Petr Martinec (Czechia)
- Ewa-Lotte Sohlström (Sweden)
- Renna Unt (Estonia)
- Taleh Ziyadov (Azerbaijan)
In addition, Robbert de Kock and Viktoria Tsvetanova were candidates for the position of BWF Vice President for Europe, while Rémon Verbeek stood for re-election as Director of Finance.
Besides the candidate presentations, Andrej Pohar also introduced the proposed BEC Rules Amendments 2026.
59th Annual Delegates’ Meeting
During the Annual Delegates’ Meeting, focus was placed on the continued development of European badminton, governance initiatives, sustainability and future strategic priorities. Several governance changes were approved, while members also voted on the composition of the Badminton Europe Board of Directors.
Rémon Verbeek was re-elected as Director of Finance, while Renna Unt (Estonia) was re-elected to the Board of Directors. Taleh Ziyadov (Azerbaijan) and Kelly Aston (Wales) were elected as new Directors for the 2026–2029 period. Viktoria Tsvetanova was elected as the European BWF Vice President.
This also marked a farewell to two Board members, Jean Marc Serfaty and Robbert de Kock. Jean Marc has served on the BEC Board of Directors since 2014, while Robbert joined the Board in 2017. A sincere thank you to both for their many years of dedication, commitment and cooperation.
This year also marked the first time BEC used the Lumi electronic voting system, allowing members to vote digitally instead of through traditional physical voting procedures.
The full summary of the meeting minutes can be found here.
The rules and amendments approved at this year’s Annual Delegates’ Meeting have been updated in the Badminton Europe Rules, which can be found here.
BEC Awards Ceremony
This year’s BEC Awards Ceremony was a special evening celebrating European badminton together with several of Europe’s biggest stars and coaches.
You can read more about the Awards Ceremony and see the full list of winners here
In addition, Carolina Marin, who announced her retirement only a few months ago, was inducted into the BEC Hall of Fame.
BEC Congress 2026 once again marked an important gathering for European badminton and highlighted the strong collaboration between Badminton Europe, its member associations and the BWF.
