Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Year of Education through Sport 2004
Date: 2001-10-16
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European symbol, physical education, promotion of the European idea, social integration, social role, sport

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 25 E/531

Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European
Year of Education through Sport 2004

(2002/C 25 E/13)

(Text with EEA relevance)

COM(2001) 584 final (cid:151) 2001/0244(COD)

(Submitted by the Commission on 16 October 2001)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community and in particular Article 149 thereof

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of
Committee,

the Economic and Social

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty,

Whereas:

(1) Promoting good quality education is one of the objectives

of the European Community.

(2) The educational values of sport were acknowledged by the
Nice European Council of 7, 8 and 9 December 2000,
thus
particularly
Declaration 29 attached to the Amsterdam Treaty in
which sport is defined as something which forges the
identity of people.

declarations,

confirming

previous

(3) The Nice European Council called upon the Community
institutions to take due account of the educational values
of sport in its action under various provisions of the
Treaty, stressing in particular that
for
Member States, with the support of the Community, to
encourage voluntary activity.

is important

it

(4) The resolution of the Council and the representatives of
the governments of the Member States meeting within the
Council of 17 December 1999 on the educational
dimension of sport considers that sporting activities can
have a teaching value which contributes to strengthening
civil society and calls upon the European Commission to
devise, in conjunction with the Member States, a coherent
approach to exploit the educational potential of sport.

(5) The European Parliament has adopted conclusions (1)
confirming the opinion of the European Commission on

educational values of

the
and stressing the
importance of sporting activities in acquiring meaningful
social values such as team spirit.

sport

(6) The European Parliament had also called upon the
European Commission to propose the organisation of a
European Year of Sport (2).

(7) The Committee of the Regions noted in its opinion (3) on
the Commission’s
(cid:145)The European
model of sport(cid:146) how important sport is in shaping the
individual.

consultation paper

(8) The Commission has,

in its Helsinki report on sport,
already examined the merits of using sport in education
and youth-related matters given the values conveyed by
sport.

(9) Commission documents on lifelong learning and on the
future objectives of education systems contain specific
references to the added value that sports-based action
can provide for the purposes of improving the quality
of teaching.

(10) Physical activity alone or as part of a team is the ideal way
to offset the use of new technologies and its characteristic
feature of sedentary and solitary work.

(11) Careers in sport are starting increasingly early, the conse-
quences for the young persons involved being disruption
to their studies.

(12) Sport makes it easier for people to move around and
encourages multicultural exchanges. However, the oppor-
tunities in this area have not yet been fully exploited by
education and academic organisations.

(13) The 2004 Olympic Games

in Athens will be very
emblematic and have a high media profile. This must be
used to open up sport and make it accessible to all
citizens
to strengthening
it can contribute
education policies. Other major sporting events such as
the EURO 2004 football tournament in Portugal will also
provide an opportunity to put the year’s message across
even more strongly.

so that

(1) OJ C 135, 7.5.2001, p. 274.

(2) OJ C 200, 30.6.1997, p. 252.
(3) COR 37/99 final of 15 and 16 September 1999.

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(14) Raising awareness of the educational values of sport is
essentially a question of effective action at national level
in the Member States and this must be complemented by
concerted efforts at the European level. The European year
can thus serve as a catalyst to raise public awareness and
bring dynamism to this action.

Article 2

Aims

The aims of the European Year of Education through Sport
shall be:

(15) Consistency and complementarity with other Community
action are essential, particularly in the areas of countering
discrimination and social exclusion and in promoting
education, training, human rights and gender equality.

1. to make education and sports organisations aware of the
need for cooperation, given the educational importance of
sport as a social phenomenon and its great capacity to
permeate all
levels of society particularly amongst young
people;

(16) The agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA)
provides for more extensive cooperation in the areas of
education and youth between the European Community
and its Member States and also with the countries of the
European Free Trade Area participating in the European
Economic Area (EFTA/EEA).

(17) The European year should be opened up to the partici-
pation of the applicant countries in central and eastern
Europe in line with the conditions laid down in the
Europe Agreements, in their additional protocols and in
the decisions of
the relevant association councils. For
Cyprus, this participation will be funded by additional
appropriations in accordance with arrangements to be
agreed upon, and for Malta and Turkey by additional
appropriations in accordance with the Treaty.

(18) This Decision lays down for the entire duration of the
programme a financial framework constituting the prime
reference, within the meaning of point 33 of the Inter-
institutional Agreement between the European Parliament,
the Council and the Commission (1) of 6 May 1999 on
budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary
procedure.

(19) In accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and
proportionality, as defined in Article 5 of the Treaty, the
aims of
the action proposed cannot be attained to a
sufficient degree by the Member States acting on their
own for reasons, which include the need for multilateral
partnerships, transnational exchange of information and
Community-wide dissemination of good practice. This
decision does not go beyond what is necessary to attain
those aims,

HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

Proclamation of the European Year of Education through
Sport

The year 2004 shall be proclaimed (cid:145)European Year of
Education through Sport(cid:146).

2. to consider the use of the values conveyed through sport to
develop the so-called basic educational skills whereby young
people in particular can develop their physical prowess and
also social competences such as working as part of a team,
solidarity, tolerance and fair play;

3. to use the positive contribution of voluntary activity to
parallel education, particularly that of young people, and
to the development of the sporting movement;

4. to promote the educational value of pupil mobility and
exchanges particularly in a multicultural environment and
through the organisation of sporting and cultural contacts
as part of school activity;

5. to encourage reflection and discussion on what needs to be
done to promote the social integration of the disadvantaged
groups through sport in education;

6. to encourage sport in the school curriculum in order to
fight against the sedentary nature of the school population
and thus contribute to improving pupils’ physical wellbeing;

7. to consider the problems relating to the education of young
sportsmen and sportswomen concerned by ever earlier
sporting careers.

Article 3

Content of the measures

1.
The measures taken to attain the objectives set out in
Article 2 include the organisation of the following activities
or the granting of support for these activities:

(a) meetings

and events,

including opening and closing

conferences;

(1) OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1.

Games in Athens;

(b) voluntary actions during the Olympic and Paralympic

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(c)

information and promotional campaigns to disseminate the
educational values of sport;

(d) cooperation with the media;

(e) surveys and studies;

(f) events designed to provide information and, in particular,

examples of good practice;

(g) financial support
initiatives

for transnational, national, regional or
the
to promote

the objectives of

local
European Year of Education through Sport.

A detailed description of

2.
paragraph 1 is given in the annex.

the measures

set out

in

Article 4

Implementation of the Decision and cooperation with the
Member States

The Commission will be responsible for ensuring that the
1.
Community actions conducted pursuant to this Decision are
implemented.

2.
Each country will designate one or more appropriate
bodies to be responsible for organising the country’s partici-
pation in the European year, and for coordinating the action
envisaged at national
in the
selection procedure described in Article 7.

these bodies will assist

level;

Article 5

Financial arrangements

Decisions on the financing and co-financing of measures
2.
under Article 5 shall be taken by the Commission after
obtaining the opinion of a group of experts. The Commission
shall ensure a balanced distribution among the different fields
of activity involved.

3.
The Commission (in particular through its national or
regional contact points) shall, in conjunction with the bodies
referred to in Article 4(2), ensure that the calls for proposals
are published in good time and distributed as widely as
possible.

Article 7

Consistency and complementarity

1.
The Commission, in cooperation with the Member States,
shall ensure consistency between the measures provided for in
this Decision and other Community actions and initiatives.

2.
It shall also ensure optimal complementarity between the
European Year of Education through Sport and other existing
Community, national and regional
initiatives and resources,
where these can contribute to fulfilling the objectives of the
European Year of Education through Sport.

Article 8

Participation by the EFTA/EEA countries, the associated
countries of central and eastern Europe, Cyprus, Malta
and Turkey

The European Year of Education through Sport shall be open
to participation:

(cid:151) by the EFTA/EEA countries

in accordance with the

conditions established in the EEA Agreement.

1. Measures which are Community-wide in nature, as
described in Part A of the annex, may be subsidised up to a
maximum of 80 % of the total cost from the general budget of
the European Communities.

(cid:151) by the candidate countries of central and eastern Europe in
accordance with the conditions established in the Europe
Agreements,
in their additional protocols and in the
decisions of the respective Association Councils.

2. Measures which are local, regional, national or trans-
national in nature, as described in Part B of the annex, may
be co-financed from the general budget of
the European
Communities up to a maximum of 50 % of the total cost.

Article 6

Application and selection procedure

for

actions

Applications

co-financing of

1.
from the
Community budget under Article 5(2) shall be submitted to
the Commission by the body/bodies referred to in Article
4(2). Applications must
information making it
include
possible to assess the outcomes using objective criteria. The
Commission will take the utmost account of the evaluation
provided by the bodies concerned.

(cid:151) by Cyprus, whose participation shall be

funded by
additional appropriations in accordance with procedures
to be agreed with that country;

(cid:151) by Malta and Turkey, whose participation shall be funded
in accordance with the

by additional appropriations
provisions of the Treaty.

Article 9

Budget

1.
The financial framework for the implementation of this
Decision is EUR 11,5 million (of which EUR 8 million will be
allocated to 2004 and EUR 3,5 million to 2003 in order to
prepare the launching of this Year from 1 January 2003).

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The annual appropriations will be authorised by the
financial

authority within the

limits of

the

2.
budgetary
perspective.

At

the Commission’s initiative,

3.
funding may also be
provided for the period 2004 for technical and administrative
expenditure provided to the Commission and to the bene-
ficiaries of the action alike, and not part of the permanent
tasks under public service, and related to the identification,
preparation, management, follow-up, audit and monitoring of
the measures.

Article 11

Monitoring and evaluation

The Commission shall submit, by 31 December 2005 at the
latest, a report to the European Parliament, the Council, the
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the
Regions on the implementation, results and overall assessment
of the measures provided for in this Decision.

Article 10

International cooperation

Article 12

Entry into force

The Commission may cooperate with appropriate international
organisations
the European Year of
Education through Sport.

the purposes of

for

This Decision shall enter into force on the day following that of
its publication in the Official
the European
Communities.

Journal

of

ANNEX

NATURE OF THE MEASURES REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 3

A. Action at Community level

1. Meetings and events:

(a) organisation of meetings at Community level;

(b) organisation of events to raise awareness on education through sport, including the conferences to open and

close the European Year of Education through Sport;

(c) voluntary actions on the occasion of the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Athens and of other major

sporting events in the Community.

2. Information and promotional campaigns involving:

(a) the development of a logo and of slogans for the European Year of Education through Sport, for use in

connection with any activity linked to the year;

(b) an information campaign on a Community-wide scale;

(c)

the production of tools and aids accessible to people throughout the Community;

(d) appropriate initiatives by European organisations active in the education and sports areas aimed at disseminating

information on the European Year of Education through Sport;

(e)

the organisation of European competitions highlighting achievements and experiences on the themes of the
European Year of Education through Sport.

3. Other actions:

(a) Cooperation with broadcasting and media organisations as partners for spreading the information about the
European Year of Education through Sport, for using new tools allowing easier access to this information (such as
voice subtitling for the hearing impaired and images description for the visually impaired), and to other
programmes if possible, and for improving communication about education through sport;

(b) Surveys and studies on a Community-wide scale, including a series of questions intended to:

(c) help to attain the objectives mentioned in Article 2;

(d) assess the impact of the European Year of Education through Sport, to be included in a Eurobarometer survey

and an evaluation report on the effectiveness and impact of the European year.

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4. This funding may be in the form of:

(a) the direct purchase of goods and services, in particular in the field of communication, surveys and studies, via

open and/or restricted calls for tenders;

(b) subsidies allocated to cover the expenses of special events at European level to highlight and raise awareness of

the European Year of Education through Sport; such funding shall not exceed 80 % of the total cost.

B. Action at national level

Depending on the nature and content proposed, local, regional, national or transnational actions may qualify for aid
from the Community covering up to a maximum of 50 % of the total cost. These actions could, for instance, include:

1. events connected with the objectives of the European Year of Education through Sport, including an event to launch

the year;

2.

information campaigns and measures to disseminate examples of good practice, other than those mentioned in Part
A above;

3. the organisation of awards or competitions;

4. surveys and studies other than those mentioned in Part A above.

C. Action for which no financial aid from the Community budget is available

The Community will offer its moral support,
including written authorisation to use the logo and other materials
associated with the European Year of Education through Sport, for initiatives undertaken by public or private organi-
sations, where those organisations can satisfy the Commission that the initiatives involved are or will be in progress
during the year 2004 and are likely to contribute significantly to achieving one or more of the objectives of the
European Year of Education through Sport.