EU to set up ‘advisory group’ on sport policy

Meeting on the fringes of the EU Sport Forum 2010 in Madrid, EU ministers agreed to set up a stakeholder advisory group to lead a structured dialogue between the EU institutions, national authorities and the sports world.

At an informal meeting this week (21 April), EU sports ministers agreed to hold a "structured dialogue" between actors across all levels of sport in view of implementing the EU's new powers on sports policy.

The dialogue will take the form of an "advisory group" dealing with "very specific topics", Spanish Secretary of State for Sport Jaime Lissavetzky told the press after the meeting.

The group will include representatives of public authorities, the EU Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the Presidency Trio (Spain, Belgium and Hungary), member states, the European Parliament and the sports world. "It is obviously now up to the sports movement to decide who will actually represent them appropriately in this new advisory committee," Lissavetzky said.

The exact number of participants is yet to be decided, and the group "will be an ongoing process," he added, stressing a general willingness to make the group "as operational as possible".

EU working party on social inclusion and equality

The ministers also agreed to set up an informal Council working group on social inclusion and equality. The decision will be formalised during May's sports ministerial meeting.

Similar informal Council working groups already exist for sports and health, non-profit sports organisations, and education and training in sport.

Read more with Euractiv

EU looks to US model for measuring R&D impact

The EU may piggyback on US efforts to measure the impact of research spending, as Europe struggles to find more reliable ways to assess the return on its investment in science.