The Covid-19 situation in Europe has worsened and the associated restrictions have intensified in the past three weeks. This is creating new, enormous challenges for WorldSkills Europe and the EuroSkills Graz 2020 team organising the event in January 2021.

EuroSkills Graz 2020 has drawn up extensive measures that apply equally to all member countries and developed a well-balanced and extremely comprehensive Covid-19 prevention concept in line with the regulations in force. However, even the best prevention concept, perfectly trained staff and the strong commitment of everyone involved, with great organisational effort and high financial cost, cannot guarantee 100% safety.

Due to the continuing withdrawals of members, the number of competitors has already been reduced by 40 % in the last few days. In some skills even the minimum number of participants can no longer be reached. The countless reciprocal travel restrictions in European countries are causing great uncertainty and it is currently not possible to guarantee the actual number of participants that will attend the event. Due to the continuously increasing numbers of people testing positive with Covid-19 in Europe, further participant withdrawals are expected. This undermines the planning basis for EuroSkills 2020.

The Board and CEO’s of EuroSkills Graz 2020, together with the Board of WorldSkills Europe have therefore decided to postpone EuroSkills Graz 2020 indefinitely.

We are currently working through the details of this decision and will share more information as soon as further decisions are made.