# EUR-Lex - 52012PC0655 - EN

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# 52012PC0655

**Recommendation for a COUNCIL DECISION Authorising the European Commission to participate, on behalf of the EU, in the negotiations for an international convention of the Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of sports results /* COM/2012/0655 final */**

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EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.           Background and political
context

Match-fixing is
unanimously considered to be one of the major threats facing contemporary
sport. Match-fixing undermines the values of sport such as integrity, fair play
and respect for others. It risks alienating fans and supporters from organised
sport, a sector that represents almost 2% of EU Gross Value Added. Moreover,
match-fixing often involves organised criminal networks active on a global
scale. It is a problem that has now become a priority for public authorities,
the sport movement and law enforcement agencies worldwide.

The 2011
Commission Communication on Developing the European Dimension in Sport
explicitly recognises match-fixing as a threat which violates the ethics and
integrity of sport. The issue of match-fixing was further addressed in 2011 in
the Commission's Green Paper on Online Gambling, in the Commission
Communication on Fighting Corruption in the EU and in the Commission
Communication Towards a comprehensive European framework for online gambling.

The European
Parliament adopted in June 2011 a Written Declaration on combating corruption
in European sport and, in February 2012, a Resolution on Developing the
European Dimension in Sport calling for increased international cooperation to
tackle match-fixing. On 29 November 2011, the EU Council adopted Conclusions on
combating match-fixing which invite the Commission, Member States and non-governmental stakeholders to cooperate and take action at different levels to
improve the way match-fixing is addressed in the EU.

The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) launched in March 2011 a Working Group composed of
high-level representatives of the sport movement, public authorities,
international organisations and betting operators to propose ways of fighting
against irregular and illegal sports betting, with a roadmap for follow-up
action adopted in Lausanne on 2 February 2012.

On 28 September
2011, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers adopted a Recommendation
on the promotion of integrity of sport against manipulation of results notably
match-fixing. The Recommendation invites the Enlarged Partial Agreement on
Sport (EPAS) to carry out a feasibility study on a possible international legal
instrument for the prevention and repression of match-fixing. On 15 March 2012,
the Council of Europe's Conference of Ministers Responsible for Sport, meeting
in Belgrade, took note of the study's conclusions and invited EPAS to launch
the negotiations, in coordination with the EU, on a possible international
legal instrument (Convention) against the manipulation of sports results,
notably match-fixing. On 13 June 2012, the Council of Europe's Committee of
Ministers endorsed this invitation. In the course of the summer of 2012, EPAS
sent invitations to the countries that are parties to the European Cultural
Convention to invite them to express their interest in participating in the
negotiations for a draft Convention of the Council of Europe against the
manipulation of sports results.

2.           A possible Council of Europe Convention against match-fixing: possible content and timetable

On the basis of the feasibility study
carried out by EPAS, the possible content of the future Council of Europe (CoE) Convention may be structured as follows:

1.           Prevention

(a)
Domestic co-ordination

(b)
Promotion and support of measures to be taken by
the sports movement

(c)
Setting up a framework for the betting market

(d)
Promotion of measures to be taken by betting
operators

2.           International co-operation

(e)
Public authorities – sport

(f)
Public authorities (betting regulators) –
betting operators

(g)
International co-operation between judicial or
law enforcement authorities

(h)
Tripartite consultations

3.           Sanctions

(i)
Combination of disciplinary, administrative and
criminal sanctions

(j)
Disciplinary

(k)
Administrative

(l)
Criminal law

(m)
Jurisdiction

4.           Law enforcement

(n)
Investigation

(o)
Cybercrime

5.           Follow-up

(p)
Monitoring

(q)
Convention committee

One of the major issues in the fight
against match-fixing at EU or international level is the need to ensure
coordination of the different stakeholders involved in the field, in
particular public authorities, law enforcement agencies, gambling regulators,
the sport movement in all its components, and betting operators (lotteries and
private operators). The main added value of a CoE Convention against
match-fixing would consist in setting up a platform for cross-border and
cross-sector cooperation involving all the relevant actors. A significant
advantage of a CoE Convention would consist in its monitoring and follow-up
structures, based on the model of existing standing committees for CoE
Conventions in the field of sport (anti-doping, spectator violence). These
structures should be open to all relevant stakeholders and they should become
the forum where discussions are held on the implementation of the Convention
and on progress in the fight against match-fixing in Europe.

Another important advantage of the future
Convention would consist in its openness to non-European countries: all
countries will be able to sign and ratify the Convention (by way of example, Canada and Australia are currently parties to the CoE Anti-Doping Convention). This aspect is
crucial since world-wide cooperation, notably with countries where sports
betting is widespread such as South-East Asian countries, is considered an
essential element in effectively fighting trans-national organised crime
networks involved in match-fixing and operating in different continents.

The proposed Convention would not be an
instrument to achieve harmonisation of the national legislations of the
signatory parties. Although the issue of establishing an agreed definition of
match-fixing and of adopting a set of effective, dissuasive and proportionate
sanctions would be mentioned in the Convention, the wording of the relevant
provisions would be phrased in such a way as to leave a degree of flexibility
for the signatory parties to implement these provisions.

The precise content, structure and scope of
the text of the Convention are at present rather theoretical as they will be
the subject of the forthcoming negotiations.

A drafting group, composed of
representatives of the member states involved in the negotiations, will be in
charge of preparing the text of the Convention. Documents circulated by the
Council of Europe explicitly foresee that it will be open to a representative
of the EU. The drafting group met for the first time for exploratory talks in Strasbourg on 9-11 October 2012. The Commission attended this first exploratory meeting as
an ad-hoc observer. EPAS will perform the role of a secretariat. EPAS foresees
a series of seven three-day meetings of the drafting group between October 2012
and December 2013, with the objective of presenting the Convention to the
Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers for signature in 2014.

3.           The role of the EU in the
fight against match-fixing

The topic of match-fixing is relatively new
on the EU agenda for sport; the initiatives related to it are therefore very
recent. At the level of the Commission, the involvement in the fight
against match-fixing can be examined under three different angles,
corresponding to the three main aspects of this problem:

Sporting
aspect: As laid down in Article 165 of the Treaty,
one of the objectives of EU action in the field of sport is to develop the
European dimension in sport by promoting fairness in sporting competitions and
by protecting the moral integrity of sportspeople. The Commission has taken a
first concrete initiative in this field by including in the Call for Proposals
implementing the 2012 Preparatory Action 'European Partnership on Sports' a
priority line for projects focusing on the prevention of match-fixing episodes
through the education and information of relevant stakeholders, notably
athletes, referees, match officials and sports administrators. The objective of
the financial support to be given through this call is to strengthen the
preventive side of the fight against match-fixing by exchanging good practices.
Combating match-fixing is also mentioned as one of the objectives of the Sport
Chapter of the proposed 'Erasmus for All' programme, which should allow
supporting similar actions in a structured way after 2014. In addition to
providing financial assistance, the Commission is cooperating closely with
external stakeholders (notably the IOC and the Council of Europe) in
identifying ways to tackle match-fixing at European and international level.
The Commission also acts as secretariat to the EU Expert Group on Good
Governance in Sport, established on the basis of the Council Resolution on an
EU Work Plan for Sport of May 2011. The Expert Group produced recommendations
for further consideration by the Council Working Party on Sport in June 2012.

Gambling and betting
aspect: Match-fixing is not necessarily linked to
sports betting. Nonetheless, the combination of unregulated sports betting and
match-fixing is an existing threat to sport events, largely due to individuals
or criminal networks that use sports betting to generate revenue and/or for
money laundering purposes. Issues related to the integrity of sport were part
of the Green Paper on Online Gambling, a public consultation that the
Commission carried out in 2011. Around 250 responses were received from various
stakeholders including sport bodies. The consultation was complemented by five
thematic work-shops in the course of 2011, one of which, held on 10 May 2011,
focused particularly on on-line gambling and sport integrity (with a focus on
match-fixing). As a follow-up to the Green Paper, the Commission adopted the 23 October 2012 the Communication “Towards a
comprehensive European framework for online gambling” (COM(2012)
596 final). The protection of the integrity of sport
against match-fixing is one of the priorities presented in the Communication with
a proposed Action Plan, which includes the participation
of the Commission in the work of the Council of Europe on a possible Convention
against manipulation of sports results,.

Corruption
aspect: match-fixing is a form of corruption and as
such is sanctioned by national criminal laws. The Commission is implementing
the anti-corruption package adopted in 2011 which is centred on improving
monitoring and evaluation of anti-corruption efforts, notably by establishing
an EU Anti-Corruption Report through which the Commission will assess on a
regular basis various outstanding aspects related to corruption and capacity to
control corruption in the EU Member States. The Report could potentially cover
any outstanding issues related to corruption, including match-fixing in sport.
The EU Anti-Corruption Report, accompanied by country analyses for each Member State, including tailor-made recommendations, will be published by the Commission
every two years starting in 2013. In parallel, the Commission is currently
considering the modalities of possible participation of the EU in the Council
of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), which is supposed to
bring added value to the EU fight against corruption.

The European Parliament touched upon
the issue of match-fixing, especially betting related match-fixing, in its 2009
report on the integrity of online gambling (A6-0064/2009). The Parliament also
dealt in more detail with the issue in its 2011 report on online gambling in
the Internal Market (A7-0342/2011), in which it mentioned issues related to
cross-border police and judicial cooperation, cooperation between organisers of
sports competitions and gambling operators, establishment of national networks
and contact points to deal with cases of match-fixing and the creation of a
definition of match-fixing at EU level. Finally, the issue of match-fixing was
also addressed in the European Parliament’s 2012 report on the European
Dimension in Sport (A7-0385/2011), in which the Parliament calls on sport
federations to work closely with Member States in order to protect the
integrity of sport.

The Council dealt for the
first time with the fight against match-fixing in the EU Work Plan for Sport
2011-2014, adopted in May 2011, in which the integrity of sport, in particular
the fight against match-fixing, was set out as a priority theme for the period
2011-2014. In addition, Council adopted in November 2011 conclusions on
combating match-fixing, in which Member States and stakeholders were invited to
encourage the development of educational programmes and ensure close
cooperation between all interested parties. The Council Working Party on Sport
is currently discussing the text of draft conclusions on establishing a
strategy to combat the manipulation of sports results, to be adopted in
November 2012.

The two EU agencies in charge of
cross-border judicial and police cooperation, EUROPOL and EUROJUST,
are also actively involved in the fight against match-fixing. Whereas cooperation of law enforcement agencies at EU level in the
field of sport was traditionally focused on the issue of spectator violence,
match-fixing has emerged as a new area for cross-border cooperation in the last
two years. At present, two cases are open; a Joint Investigation Team (JIT)
involving four EU countries (HU, DE, FI, AT) is in place to deal with these
cases. The reason given by EUROPOL and EUROJUST for their involvement in cases
of match-fixing is that match-fixing often implies serious organised crime.

All these elements point in a single
direction: the fight against match-fixing has acquired the status of a priority
in different policy areas (sport policy, supervision of gambling markets, fight
against corruption) at EU level, and public attention is likely to increase
following the recent episodes of corruption at various levels in the world of
sport.

Since the envisaged Convention does not aim
at harmonising criminal law provisions in the signatory countries nor at
achieving harmonisation in other fields such as gambling and betting laws, and
since, based on article 6 TFEU, the EU only has a competence to carry out
action to support, coordinate or supplement actions of the Member States in the
field of sport, it is proposed that the EU participates in the forthcoming
negotiations alongside its Member States. The proposed participation in
the negotiations has no impact on the EU budget.

The Commission therefore recommends to
the Council:

–
To adopt the attached decision authorising the
participation of the European Commission, on behalf of the EU, in the
negotiations for an international convention of the
Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of sports results;

–
To issue the negotiating directives attached to
that decision;

–
To designate a special committee in consultation
with which the negotiations will be conducted.

Recommendation for a

COUNCIL DECISION

Authorising the European Commission to
participate, on behalf of the EU, in the negotiations for an international
convention of the Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of sports
results

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard
to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular
Article 218(3) and (4) thereof,

Having regard
to the recommendation from the European Commission,

Whereas:

Negotiations
should be opened on the preparation of an international convention of the
Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of sports results,

The Union should participate in these negotiations.

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The Commission
is hereby authorised to negotiate, on behalf of the European Union, an
international convention of the Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of
sports results.

Article 2

The negotiating
directives are set out in the Annex.

Article 3

The
negotiations shall be conducted in consultation with [name of the special
committee to be inserted by the Council].

Article 4

This Decision is addressed to the Commission.

Done at Brussels,

For
the Council

The
President

ANNEX

Directives for the negotiation

of an international convention of the Council of Europe to combat
the manipulation of sports results

The future
convention will aim at creating an international legal framework for the
prevention of and fight against manipulation of sports results, notably
match-fixing; the objective of the convention should be to enhance
international cooperation in this context and to set up a monitoring mechanism
to ensure that the provisions laid down in the convention are followed-up in an
effective way.

The European
Union will participate in these meetings with a view to ensuring the
consistency of the proposed convention with the EU acquis, notably in
terms of Internal Market freedoms (freedom to provide services and freedom of
establishment) and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

The European
Union will also participate in the negotiations with the objective of ensuring
that the provisions of the future Convention are aligned with EU policies in
the areas of sport, online gambling and fight against corruption. The reference
documents for these policies are, inter alia, as follows:

·
The Commission Communication on Developing the
European Dimension in Sport (COM(2011)12 final);

·
The Green Paper on Online Gambling (COM(2011)128
final);

·
The Commission Communication on Fighting
Corruption in the EU (COM(2011)308 final);

·
The Commission Communication Towards a
comprehensive European framework for online gambling (COM(2012)
596 final)

·
The Council conclusions on combating
match-fixing (16819/11).