Book Description

The European Commission white paper on sport, published on 11 July 2007, was referred to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee for an opinion by the European Scrutiny Committee. The white paper consists of three policy discussions, on the social value of sport, the economic value of sport, and the organisation of sport. Various action points emerge from the discussions, and with the white paper these form the Action Plan Pierre de Coubertin (included as an appendix to this report). There is a lack of competence for sport under existing EU treaties, though not under the Reform, or Lisbon, treaty. The report examines the content of the white paper and sport and EU law in detail. The Committee believes that sport has distinctive characteristics that need to be taken into account in the application of EU law. Much of the white paper is useful in exploring scope for using existing networks and programmes to support participation in sport. But the Committee does not believe there is any justification or necessity for the Commission to take a more active role in driving the development of policy on sport, and notes the alarm created by the lack of a clear statement on the autonomy of sports organisations. Governing bodies of sport should have the freedom to decide for themselves how their sport is run.