Brussels, 28/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) needs the support of governments if it is to combat the use of illegal drugs in sport. During an interview with the members of the European Parliament committee on education and culture, on Tuesday 26 January, WADA Director General David Howman set out the action plan and priorities of the agency that was created on 10 November 1998 to ensure compliance with the provisions of the world anti-doping code. He also explained the agency's financing (half of which comes from governments and half from the Olympic Movement), and its aims for the future.
Healthy sportsmen and sportswomen must be able to defend their values, Howman stressed, also pointing out that it is necessary to protect the most trusting athletes against suspect individuals who move in sports circles and who encourage athletes to enhance their performances by using substances whose composition is not always known to them. In addition to the negative image that doping gives to sport, doping is a public health matter as it endangers the lives of sportsmen and women and lies at the root of organised crime, which is why government support is so necessary, the WADA director general added. For example, WADA is powerless to combat performance enhancing drugs produced by laboratories selling online - laboratories which make huge profits. David Howman went on to say that it is the role of WADA to ensure signatory states abide by the code of practice and to encourage countries that have not yet done so to sign the code. To date, 131 countries have ratified the code. As far as the European Union is concerned, all member states have signed except Malta. In 2006, WADA launched a review of the code in order to adjust the text to the reality of the situation on the ground, and a revised text was adopted in Madrid on 17 November 2007, with amendments being introduced in early 2009. The code is now far firmer and sanctions longer, Howman said. Nonetheless, a more realistic range of penalties now exists to bring them into line with the kinds of infringement noted. Howman went on to say by way of conclusion that they are still seeking to improve the code, that they are working in cooperation with sports organisations and that they are moving towards data sharing, while at the same time working on educational programmes to inform athletes of the dangers of doping.
In their questions, MEPs first of all tackled the problem of the respect of privacy of athletes who, in order for tabs to be kept on doping activity, must give details of what they do and of their whereabouts. The private life of athletes must be respected, stressed Emine Bozkurt (S&D, NL). More flexibility is needed in the rules on tracking athletes, continued Ivo Belet (EPP, Belgium), returning to the polemic concerning penalties foreseen by the Flemish (Belgian) anti-doping agency against the tennis players, Yanina Wickmayer and Xavier Malisse. Individual rights must be safeguarded and penalties proportionate, stressed Petra Kammerevert (S&D, Germany). David Howman said he had not been excessively severe, and that, as far as athletes' whereabouts was concerned, there was great flexibility with three warnings before any penalty. He said: “Only three athletes have breached the rules out of 13,000 who have done nothing wrong”. WADA is, however, open to change and may reflect on greater harmonisation between national doping agencies, he explained. The chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Doris Pack (EPP, Germany), was particularly concerned about the fate reserved to the sometimes intimate details appearing in the medical records of sportsmen and women at the WADA headquarters in Montreal.
Other members, for example Santiago Fisas Ayxela (EPP, Spain) and Piotr Borys (EPP, Poland), expressed concern about the increasingly sophisticated techniques used by fraudsters in order to circumvent doping checks.
A representative of the European Commission concluded the debate by evoking the latest provisions foreseen by the Community executive on sport. Pointing out that sport was now an integral part of the new European treaty, he announced that the Commission would, in 2010, present two documents containing provisions aimed at finalising the new framework, which will mention anti-doping. Welcoming the work carried out by WADA, he said the Commission's work should be complementary to that of the World Anti-Doping Agency. (I.L./transl.jl)