Strasbourg, 22/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 19 December, the European Parliament endorsed the Council common position on making 2004 the European Year of Education through Sport. Commissioner Viviane Reding was given a yellow and green T-shirt marking the occasion by Green MEPs Dhaene and Turmes.
The common position sets out a series of objectives for the year, along with a number of measures (meetings and events, voluntary activities, information and promotion campaigns, and the funding of transregional and transnational initiatives). The amendments made by the Council focus on ensuring the principle of subsidiarity is respected and setting up an advisory committee in line with the comitology procedures.
The rapporteur, Doris Pack (CDU), said that they didn't want studies or reports, but tangible action. All the other speakers in the brief debate echoed this sentiment. Spanish MEP Teresa Zabell, speaking for the EPP-ED, called for an article in the new Treaties on sport, while Austrian Socialist group member Christa Prets called for particular efforts to be made for the disabled. On this issue, Commissioner Viviane Reding said that the Commission would be funding the work of volunteers at the Disabled Olympics in Dublin next year. Belgian MEP Willy De Clercq, for the Liberal group, said that sport accounted for 2% of the EU's GNP and although it provided many positive values, it was necessary to fight against negative elements like chauvinism and violence. Sport is an instrument of social inclusion, said Welsh MEP Eurig Wyn for the Greens/EFA, regretting that the common position had not included the amendment on school competitions whereby the winning school would have been able to take part in the Athens Olympic Games. Reding said she'd let him in on a secret: her staff are already examining the issue, along with the School Sports Federation, to see how to give free rein to the idea.
Reding confirmed that the Council's common position takes account of all the EP's demands, that make a significant improvement to the text. In terms of the budget (EUR 11.5 million) for the European Sport Year, she said it was an "incentive" and they had already received a huge number of requests for intervention from big European sports federations. Reding said they had more money than the Commission and so it would be civil society that would be contributing to much of the organisation of the initiative.