Council of Europe wants sports federations to be part of policymaking
20 November 2006
By Kirsten Sparre
Ministers of sport from 49 European countries want to set up a new body under the auspices of the Council of Europe to strengthen European policymaking in the area of sport. As something new, the new body will also be open to international sports federations and sports NGOs.
The many sports ministers were gathered in Moscow at the end of last month to consider how the Council of Europe should organise its work on sport in the future.
Up until the end of 2005, the Sports Department of the Council of Europe consisted of a Comittee for the Development of Sport and two conventions on Anti-Doping and Spectator Violence. But in December 2005, the European sports ministers decided to look for alternative ways of organising the work for sport.
Now the ministers recommend a new structure - the so-called Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) - in addition to continuing work on the two sport conventions.
The role of EPAS will be to set standards and make policy on sport for all Council of Europe member states. The standards will not be formally binding but serve as recommendations.
As a new development, international sports federations and sports NGOs are also invited to become active partners of EPAS through a Consultative Committee. Every sport NOG that decides to become a party to EPAS will be represented on the Consultative Committeee.
”It will allow sports organisations to be genuine participants in policymaking. That will be a key asset in the context of the growing debate about the balance between self-regulation and regulation in sport,” says Maud de Boer-Buquicchio who is deputy secretary-general of the Council of Europe.
She also explains that the new body will be open to membership by the EU and could thus be a place for discussion on the legal environment for sport as it is defined by EU legislation.
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