Brussels, 18/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday16 February, participants at the conference on sport organised by the Latvian presidency in Riga, emphasised that grassroots sport is important for promoting social integration, reducing inequality and developing useful skills for increasing employability potential. The conference brought together around 130 important actors from the sports world from 29 different European countries.
During its mandate, every presidency organises a conference on sport and tackles a particular field within this theme. The Latvian Presidency decided to focus discussions on “Sport and Physical Activity for Development of the Human Capital”. In her opening speech, the Latvian Minister for Education and Science, Marite Seilen, emphasised the link between children and young people's physical education and urban development. She called for work to develop a more harmonious urban and “greener” environment and stressed “for urban inhabitants, the main environment for physical activities will be the city, its parks, bike paths and freely available sports grounds”. She also appealed for designated public areas to be open to all social groups, particularly young people. Turning towards the issue of the European Agenda for Promoting Grassroots Sport, the head of the sport unit at the European Commission, Yves Le Lostecque, highlighted the opportunities provided by the Erasmus+ programme for grassroots sport and said that he was delighted with the “European Sport Week” planned for next September. During the conference, the participants discussed the development of street sport and its role in developing character and obtaining skills, as well as the role of the family for promoting physical activity, the importance of work by volunteers in the sport sector and action taken by the cities, councils and private entrepreneurs for developing sporting activities.
The conference was followed by a meeting between the EU directors general for sport on 17 February, which also took place in Riga. They discussed the importance of anti-doping measures as part of the World Anti-Doping Code, which entered into force on 1 January 2015. Discussions revealed that not all member states had harmonised their legislation and anti-doping rules with the measures ratified in the code. They also discussed the technical progress that had been made and which now allowed very sophisticated products to be developed, which compel the authorities to constantly review the different approaches envisaged. Intensified data sharing and closer cooperation was highlighted, “since doping is a plague that cannot be fought alone”. Discussion participants also emphasised the fact that in addition to doping being widespread in the professional sports world, it was also becoming widespread in recreational sport, which also meant they needed to make efforts at this level too. (Isabelle Lamberty)