EU:Sport:Future is a Commission-funded "broad discussion project" aimed at producing concrete recommendations on the EU's sports competence, set to come into being once the Lisbon Treaty enters into force.
Launched in February, citizens have until end of March to answer the project's online questionnaire, which asks them to submit their views on which actions the EU should implement in the field of sports, and particularly regarding health, volunteering, social inclusion, education and employment.
"We have already encountered a huge response rate to the online questionnaire," project manager Michel Trinker told EurActiv. While the project expected some 200-300 responses, over 700 questionnaires have already been filled in, even though the questionnaire is "very long", he said.
"We expect to surpass the number of responses [777] received by the Commission for its consultation on the White Paper on Sport," Trinker predicted.
Once the questionnaire is closed, an analysis of the answers will be presented to the European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation (ENGSO) general assembly at the end of April. The analysis will frame discussions in a series of workshops, referred to as "citizen panels".
The panels, to be organised between May and September, will address education, employment, health, society and volunteering. Workshop participants will be drawn from the pool of respondents to the EU questionnaire.
The final conference, bringing together the results of the workshops, will take place in Lisbon at the end of October, just before the submission of the final conclusions and recommendations to the Commission at the end of November. Meanwhile, the EU executive's sports unit will be actively involved in the project during its implementation phase, and is set to participate in the various workshops, Trinker underlined.
The project is not expected to lead to a "revolution", as "we have to take into account what the Commission's White Paper is saying," Trinker said. Meanwhile, as the questionnaire and workshops go into much more detail, "we may identify priorities that have not yet been identified in the White Paper," he added.
"I really think this project has a very good potential to shape the future of EU sports. That's what we are striving for and we take it very seriously," Trinker concluded.
The project is coordinated by ENGSO, which implements it in conjunction with seven different national sport organisations. It receives financial support from the Commission's Europe for Citizens programme, and the majority of the project's €250,000 budget is said to be earmarked for covering participants' travel expenses to the workshop and final conference.
