European Level
In the European Union sport is addressed by different authorities within the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council.
Within the European Commission the responsibility for sport is assigned to the “Sport Unit”, which is part of the Directorate General (DG) for “Education, Training, Culture and Youth”. Established in 1997, the “Sport Unit”, has the task of cooperating with national and international sports organisations and the principal stakeholders for sport within Europe’s institutional structure.
The European Parliament disposes of a Committee on “Culture, Youth and Education” (CULT-Committee), which also addresses matters related to sport. The European Council deals with matters related to sport only in so-called “informal meetings”.
For its part, the Council of Europe is a body that is not directly affiliated to the European Union. Within it, the “Steering Committee for the Development of Sport” CDDS (“Comité directeur pour le développement du sport”) has been dealing extensively with sports issues for thirty years and is responsible for organising the conference of “European Ministers in authority of sport” every two years. (EMSC)
To improve dialogue between the Commission, sport organisations and the Member Nations, the commission introduced the so-called “structured dialogue” between European stakeholders in sport in publishing the “White paper on sport” in 2007.