WRITTEN QUESTION P-0102/00

by Pietro-Paolo Mennea (ELDR) to the Commission

(18 January 2000)

Subject: Request for specific recognition of amateur sport

Sport has a social function and plays a role as an integral part of the culture of the Community countries, as well as having educational, social, cultural and recreational aspects recognised in the Amsterdam Treaty. It is necessary to bear in mind the way sport is organised in Europe, its characteristics and recent developments. A distinction is made in the Member States between professional sport (organised by businesses) and amateur sport (organised by non-profit-making organisations). Amateur sport, as practised in the Member States, must be recognised as such by the various national sports federations, in accordance with the standards drawn up by those organisations and in compliance with the directives drawn up by the various national Olympic committees in the Member States.

In view of the distinction between professional and amateur sport made by national laws and the regulations of the relevant sports organisations, can the Commission say whether it considers it appropriate to make an amendment to the Amsterdam Treaty recognising the specific nature of the sector of sport which national laws and the regulations of the sports organisations in the Member States define as amateur sport?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(18 February 2000)

The Commission has recognised that sport is an essential instrument for social integration and education(1) in European society, and advocates a new partnership between the various actors in the sports sector sports organisations, national authorities and Community institutions in order to maintain and strengthen the social value of physical exercise and sport.

With regard to the way in which sport is organised, the Commission would stress that there are significant differences from one Member State to another. Not all Member States have legislation relating to sport, in addition to which the differences between professional and amateur sport are not always defined clearly and precisely. As Advocate-General Cosmas emphasised in his Opinion(2), the economic or non-economic character of an athlete's activities should be sought in the elements defining the nature of that activity, and not in declarations by sports federations. It is therefore a matter for the courts, and not the sports federations, to determine whether a sporting activity is of a professional nature or not.

The Commission also considers that Community law already takes account of certain characteristics inherent in sport, especially amateur sport. It recognises, for example, the existence of activities of a specifically sporting nature which are bound by rules or the self-regulating powers of the sports organisations but are not subject to competition rules. For this reason, the Commission does not at this stage consider it necessary to amend the treaties in order to acknowledge the specific nature of amateur sport.

(1) The Helsinki Report on Sport: Report from the Commission to the European Council with a view to safeguarding current sports structures and maintaining the social function of sport within the Community framework, COM(1999) 644 final.

(2) Opinion of Advocate-General Cosmas in Joined Cases C-51/96 and C-191/97.