Partners

North Macedonia Active (NMA)

Association for Recreation Wellness – North Macedonia Active (NMA) is the national voice of North Macedonia’s health, fitness, and wellness sector. Founded in 2022, we unite gyms, studios, trainers, medical professionals, suppliers, and NGOs with one mission: to make physical activity a daily habit in every household and to ensure that our nation becomes healthier, stronger, and more active.

Through annual forums, continuing education programs, regional research, and direct advocacy with the Ministries of Health and Sport, NMA elevates standards, combats the shadow economy, and promotes cooperation across the Western Balkans. As North Macedonia’s official member of EuropeActive and HFA, we provide access to EU certification pathways, grant opportunities, and international networks—empowering our community to thrive and lead change.

Serbian Association for Recreation and Fitness

Serbian Association for Recreation and Fitness – SARF, as the official national branch association, is a center of the fitness industry in Serbia that gathers: representatives of clubs, trainers and instructors, manufacturers and distributors of exercise equipment, supplements, software solutions companies and other fitness industry companies, higher education institutions… It counts near 400 clubs from all over Serbia.

Main goal of the association is to popularize fitness, recreation, exercise, as well as healthy lifestyles in general, both for individuals and families, in order to create preconditions for a healthy and quality life of all citizens. All categories of citizens are included in our projects: children, students, employees, pensioners. This task of the association is especially evident in cities, urban areas, where people are exposed to a sedentary lifestyle, without much contact with nature.

During the year SARF organizes numerous events. In addition to schooling fitness trainers and major educational events (European Fitness Congress, Fit Spot – Regional fitness congress) we also organize seminars and workshops on various topics (entrepreneurship, digitalization, training, nutrition, management…). Closely related to the educational segment is the fact that SARF issues licenses for work in the field of recreation and fitness. We organize trail races in seven places across Serbia (Beograd, Vršac, Novi Pazar, Golija, Smederevo, Katići, Zlatibor) in which a large number of recreational athletes participate. However, the biggest event we organize during the year is the fitness & health expo BELFIS.

Co-operation with national associations, especially with the German Fitness Association (DSSV), contributed to adopting and transposing the European standards in the field of fitness. Thanks to partnerships with international fairs RiminiWellness, SARF organizes trip to this international fitness fair.

Since 2010, the Association have been publishing the magazine Fitness Management International – a specialized licensed magazine. It is intended for an audience for which a healthy life and recreation is a way of life: club owners, coaches and instructors, students of the Faculty of Physical Education, but also all those for whom exercise and fitness are an everyday need and pleasure.

For successful work and notable results in the field of fitness and recreational sports, the Serbian Association for Recreation and Fitness and the magazine Fitness Management International have established annual awards in several categories: Fitness Club of the Year, Fitness Person of the Year in three categories (best fitness trainer, best group instructor, best manager), Fitness studio of the year, Best new club, Best hotel fitness…

Bulgarian Association for Health and Fitness (BAHF)

The Bulgarian Association for Health and Fitness (BAHF) was established in 2010 as a national employers’ organization to unite and protect the interests of employers in the sports sector.

The association represents the interests of a wide range of companies, including sports and fitness centers, dance studios, swimming pools, group exercise halls, martial arts schools and other operators of sports facilities and companies working in the field of health prevention.

BAZF is part of the family of the largest European association representing the interests of the industry related to sport and health prevention – EuropeActive and the only partner and representative for Bulgaria.

It is also a member of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce – a union of Bulgarian business, uniting and defending at national level the employer and industrial interests of economic entities from the entire economic spectrum of the national economy.

The members of the Association are different economic sectors and the membership includes companies that produce nutritional supplements, extract and distribute mineral waters, training companies, manufacturing enterprises producing appliances, aids and equipment used in the field of sports and health prevention.

As an Association representing the interests of the sports and health prevention sector, the Association is a major partner of various government bodies and institutions, having a major role in the early opening of controversial centres during the covid-pandemic.

The main goal of the Association is to increase the physical activity of the population of all age groups, through sport and prevention, which is directly related to both the health and performance of Bulgarian workers. With this policy, the Association is a natural partner of the State promoting physical activity and the need for state and local policies for health prevention.

The main goal of the Association is related to increasing the physical activity of the population of all age groups, through sport and prevention, which is directly related to both the health and the performance of Bulgarian workers and employees. With this policy, the Association is a natural partner of the State promoting physical activity and the need for state and local policies for the prevention of population health, leading to a reduction in the cost of treatment, hospital and pre-hospital care, the cost of medicines at the expense of the NHS, respectively for the state budget.

The Association is a long-standing co-organizer of the annual European Sports Day BeActiveDay in the country, as a large part of the sports centers members of BAZF participate with their instructors, experts working in the field of improving the living conditions and health of the population, and annually initiatives are carried out to promote physical activities through sport.

S.I.G.A.

S.I.G.A. since 1997 successfully organizes every year the events of National Fitness Day. Holds many Fitness Conferences as well as the National Fitness Meetings. It’s partner of Europe Active from the very beginning and organizes Be Active Day events from 2004, during the European Week of Sports; something that gave us the experience in managing projects from start to finish, including planning, budgeting and reporting.