Brussels, 03/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - One week after the communication on sport was adopted, Androula Vassiliou, the commissioner responsible, met Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Michel Platini, President of the Union of European Football Associations, (UEFA) on 27 and 28 January as part of the enhanced dialogue between the European Union and sports organisations. The commissioner gave briefings on the communication which was welcomed by the sports associations. UEFA, in particular, hailed the Commission view backing the four cornerstones of the European sports model: open competitions, the pyramid structure of competitions with the principles of promotion and relegation, organisation of sport on a national basis, and financial solidarity between grassroots and professional sport. The IOC was pleased to see the Commission's support for the collective selling of media rights as a way of ensuring financial solidarity and redistribution mechanisms within sport. It also praised the Commission's approach to the protection of intellectual property rights owned by sports organisations, which are an important source of revenue for sport. The IOC also expressed its support for the Commission's intention to further define the specific nature of sport. While the communication clearly recognises the role sport has to play in social inclusion, the representatives of the Olympic Movement expressed concern that a new dedicated EU funding programme for sport had been put on hold. They underlined the importance of having a specific budget line for the promotion of the social role of sport, especially at grassroots level. This was a concern expressed by MEPs, too, in the European Parliament on 25 January, during the hearing of Hungarian Sports Minister Attila Czene when he set out his priorities (see EUROPE 10301). Rogge took the opportunity of Vassiliou's visit to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne to update her on the Olympic Movement's latest initiatives in the areas of good governance, irregular betting and athletes' career management - areas also addressed in the Commission communication. “The IOC is clearly a very important stakeholder for us …The measures that we have formulated in our recent communication paper highlight sport's contribution to our society and outline a number of challenges which we want to tackle in close coordination with the member states and the world of sport”, Vassiliou said after her meetings at the IOC. “Today's meeting with Commissioner Vassiliou was very productive and gave us the opportunity to discuss how we can mainstream the social role of sport in various fields, and, at the same time, fight the threats to sport's integrity, such as doping and irregular betting”, Rogge stated. (I.L./transl.rt)