European Aquatics says there has been no breach of its rules after the governing body held a Bureau meeting on 10 January following an ethics complaint against President Antonio Silva.
Allegations were made in a letter from Alexandra Jorge, the former secretary to the Portuguese federation’s General Assembly, and comes as Silva bids for re-election later this month.
Following the online meeting, European Aquatics found there was no reason for further action nor had Silva’s integrity been called into question.
European Aquatics said in a release on Thursday 11 January:
“On 3 January 2024, a letter was sent to representatives of European Aquatics and World Aquatics by Ms Alexandra Jorge, of Portugal who: “wanted to draw your attention to situations taking place in Portugal” and that you should all “analyse these situations in light of the code of ethics and transparency”.
“A letter from Ms Jorge had already been sent to Portugal’s Institute for Sport and Youth.
“When he was made aware of this, in the interests of transparency, Mr Silva informed the World Aquatics Integrity Unit in detail about this matter and supplied them with all relevant documentation.
“On 10 November, Mr Silva received the following communication: “After review and analysis of your self-report letter to AQIU as well as of additional documents…. Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of the Aquatics integrity Unit decided to take no further action at this stage”.
“On 5 January 2024, the General Secretary of European Aquatics convened a meeting of the European Aquatics Bureau online for 10 January to allow a full and open discussion of this topic. In addition, the General Secretary asked the Legal Commission ad hoc to comment on the letter of Ms Jorge.
“The members of the Commission (Christopher Magnusson, Arno Pajek and Erik van Heijningen) have studied the letter including annex, documents from the Portuguese federation (FPN) and World Aquatics and a letter of clarification from the European Aquatics President to the Bureau dated 6 January 2024.
“The European Aquatics Bureau meeting took place on 10 January.
“The Legal Commission expressed their view that the information Ms. Jorge had presented did not justify any doubts about the integrity of Mr Silva as European Aquatics president or candidate for the European Aquatics presidency. In the light of paragraph 15.2 of the Constitution there is no reason to present a case to the Panel.
“The European Aquatics Bureau, unanimously, agreed with the recommendation of the Legal Commission that there is no reason for any action.
“Nonetheless, Mr Silva has sent the letter of Ms Jorge of 3 January as well as all documentation arising from the Bureau Meeting and Legal Commission meeting and correspondence to the World Aquatics Integrity Unit.
“European Aquatics believes that Ms. Jorge’s letter has been carefully dealt with according to European Aquatics rules and that the information presented by her does not justify doubts about the integrity of Antonio da Silva either as European Aquatics president or as a candidate for the presidency.