Sports policy: Clash between sociocultural and single market coalitions “currently a draw”

If approved, the Constitution will be the first time an EU treaty has included an explicit reference to sport. A Danish sports lawyer talks EURACTIV through the legal implications for the embryonic European Sports Policy.

Stakeholder consultations on the use of the new sports article in the Constitution (if approved) are beginning to heat up.

“You might have thought that the adoption of the new sports article would mean a winner and a loser in the battle between those defending the specificity of sport and those who consider that it should be dealt with like any other business. But I see it as a draw for now,” says Lars Halgreen, a lawyer with Danish law firm Johan Schlüter. Halgreen has written a book entitled ‘European sports law – a comparative analysis of the European and American models of sport’ and is an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Halgreen says it is unclear how the two fractions will come out of this new sports article as it does not say much about how sport should be treated. He sees the new sports article as a compromise between those wanting an almost ‘carte blanche’ exemption for sport [the socio-cultural coalition] and the more traditionalist factions [the single market coalition] who are not interested in giving big sports enterprises more lenient treatment than other branches of business in Europe.

State aid is an area the he believes will be one of the strongest suits for the socio-cultural fraction. He believes that it is permissible to have a programme where money is channelled into professional sports enterprises provided that it is done in a way such that the education and training of young people is “fully” promoted.

Turning to the new sports article itself, which refers to protecting “the moral and physical integrity of young sports people”, Halgreen says that it lends strength and legitimacy to the possibility of spending money on anti-doping measures. He says that everybody could agree on that but that other parts of the sports agenda were too sensitive for there to be a clear majority to say anything definite and specific. Another area that he suggests could warrant funding under the new article is the fight against paedophiles in amateur youth sport.

Read the full interview

Selected excerpts from the ‘sports article’ in the new Constitution is Article III-282 (Editor’s note: EURACTIV’s italics):

The Union shall contribute to the promotion of European sporting issues, while taking account of the specific nature of sport, its structures based on voluntary activity and its social and educational function.

(g) developing the European dimension in sport, by promoting fairness and openness in sporting competitions and cooperation between bodies responsible for sports, and by protecting the physical and moral integrity of sportsmen and sportswomen, especially young sportsmen and sportswomen.
2. The Union and the Member States shall foster cooperation with third countries and the competent international organisations in the field of education and sport, in particular the Council of Europe.

Read more with Euractiv

EU to push for research and convergence in ICT

EU leaders meeting at the spring summit endorsed the Commission's proposed 'i2010' initiative to boost R&D in the ICT sector. But they did not say whether they would support the Commission's plea for the EU R&D budget to be doubled.