WRITTEN QUESTION E-3200/00

by Mario Mauro (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(12 October 2000)

Subject: International body's discrimination of a sports company which has actively fought doping

For 15 years the company A & V Sport Ltd and the sports group Amore & Vita Giubileo Beretta have successfully participated in international sport and championed the health-related aspects of sport.

The Amore & Vita professional cycling team, part of the Fanini group, has the longest history in the international arena; it has had great worldwide success, winning, amongst others, 11 world championships, 28 Italian championships and 11 stages of the Giro d'Italia; it has introduced 3 700 athletes to cycling and has discovered and launched numerous champions, such as Cipollini, Bartoli, Tafi, Sorensen and others.

The team's manager, Ivano Fanini has, in recent years and in less suspicious times, actively fought against doping with the aim of cleaning up cycling, which is now the focus of huge controversy with cyclists from all over the world involved in cases of doping.

Despite the fact that A & V Sport Ltd met all the requirements of the International Cycling Union (ICU) for its 2000 membership, the latter organisation, and namely its president, Hein Verbruggen, first of all unreasonably delayed and then rejected the team's application for the year 2000.

The International Cycling Union has for no reason refused Amore & Vita the right to register as a professional world-class team. A legal dispute with the ICU on the matter has been pending for months. The team has therefore been unable to participate in international events such as the Giro d'Italia, in which it had previously taken part for 15 consecutive years, and it has now been prevented from taking part in the Giro di Lucca, a multi-stage cycling race held on the sports group's home ground and where the team therefore has the greatest number of sponsors and fans.

Can the Commission say what immediate measures it intends to take vis-à-vis the International Cycling Union to enable the aforementioned company and sports group to register in the appropriate manner, thereby defending the sporting spirit and young cyclists, rather than the bureaucratic face of the ICU?

Does the Commission not consider that the International Cycling Union's failure to register Amore & Vita and to provide due justification for such action would seem to indicate retaliation on the part of the ICU for Ivano Fanini's condemnations of doping in cycling and his anti-doping campaigns?

Does the Commission not also consider that this situation has greatly damaged the families of the thirty racing cyclists from Italy and other EU countries, not to mention the sports company which manages the team and which, unable to participate in the main races, is losing its key sponsors and the chance to allow its sports group to continue competing in future years?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(15 December 2000)

The Commission has always emphasised its commitment to issues related to the fight against doping.

However, on the basis of the information given by the Honourable Member, the Commission is unable to see how Community law could be affected by the decision taken by the International Cycling Union (ICU).

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the Commission is therefore of the opinion that this is not a Community matter and, as a result, it must refrain from intervening. Indeed, the matter would seem to be more the concern of the sports organisations.