Madam President, Commissioner, I am happy to be able to present my report to you this evening, although, as you can testify, the House is now looking a little empty. The issue of women and sport pertains to both my Parliamentary responsibilities. It relates to both the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities and the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport. It is an own-initiative report, which in essence deals with a fundamental element of our democracy. Sport has formed part of the basis of the development of democracy since ancient times. I am also happy that this report has been completed under the Greek Presidency. I would like to give you a brief outline of the different contextual elements of this own-initiative report, as I set out to do. Firstly, we need to acknowledge that there is a huge disparity between the situation of men and women and between boys and girls on the issue of sport and access to sport, whether pursued at a high level or as a leisure activity. It is essential to recognise this disparity. Secondly, sport is and remains a means of self-fulfilment at all stages of life. The issue of equality of opportunity comes into play here. Thirdly, as there is the disparity I mentioned, we need to take account of an issue that poses some difficulties. If we want to ensure equality between young girls and young boys, between men and women and amongst teenagers and young adults, we need to take account of the disparities and differences between men and women when it comes to sporting performance. Some people have told me that they think this has been taken on board already. I note that both the army and the police have had to arrange for different competitive and performance-related tests for men and women. This is an attempt to establish equality between different body types to ensure men and women have equal opportunities. I have tried to explain this idea in recital M of my report in particular. It is difficult to achieve a situation of equality or equilibrium, however you want to put it, when we have two different starting points. In my opinion, these are the three contextual elements which form the basis of the report. I would remind you that a report on women and sport was presented to Parliament thirteen years ago. I had hoped to be a pioneer, but I am not. I must recognise that others have highlighted this problem before me, and I am delighted about this. There are three main contexts in which equality of opportunity and self-fulfilment are an issue, namely sport in schools, sport as a leisure activity and top-level sport. It is perhaps in this regard that I set out to be innovative in relation to the previous report. All three areas must be taken into account in the development of sport. School is a place for setting standards and for teaching girls and boys together. It is a place for opening horizons rather than slamming the door on future opportunities. All the professionals have told me that school plays a key role in women’s access to sport. Sport as a leisure activity is a luxury for some people, for some women I should say. You need to have the time, the means and the opportunity to access sport in order to pursue it as a leisure activity. There are far fewer sports facilities for young girls, teenagers, young women and women than there are for young boys and men. There is a great disparity in that pursuing a sport as a leisure activity is a luxury for women who have to deal with the demands of both work and a family. I wanted to stress this point. As for top-level sport, we first need to understand the issues involved. It is sometimes difficult to get up-to-date with what is happening in women’s sport at the highest level. The media do not always cover the issues as they could or as they should or as we would wish them to. Furthermore, we must not overlook the specific health problems encountered by some top sportswomen. There are disorders and hormone problems which can later lead to reproductive problems or premature ageing. All the professionals have stressed these health problems to me. As one sociologist put it, sport does not equate to health, contrary to the received wisdom. Lastly, everyone is agreed on the need to ensure that women have a greater role in decision-making. This is also a key element. Lastly, I would like to explain that I have recently undertaken a good deal of work with the different political groups. I would like to thank them for being so willing to contribute. I would also like to thank the Greek Presidency for organising a meeting on women and sport, held in Thessaloniki on 8 March, which I attended. Thanks are also due to the Presidency for including my proposal to create a ‘Women and Sport’ unit in its declaration at the end of this meeting. Further, I would like to thank the International Olympic Committee and the European Women and Sport network, which have been very cooperative. The last idea that I would like to put forward stems from what I heard from all the parties involved, professionals included. They asked me to stand up for mixed participation in sport. This is the way forward. This report is entitled ‘Women and Sport’ but its objective is mixed participation. We want men and women, girls and boys to be involved in what is and should remain a pleasurable activity for both genders.

Political group: GUE-NGL