EU Law and Sport

Doping / Anti-Doping

The integrity of sport is increasingly affected by the use of performance enhancing drugs and methods in competition and training. Doping is a complex problem that undermines the spirit of sport and threatens individual health. National and international sport organisations and public authorities work together to protect athletes’ health by adopting prevention measures and by fostering fair and clean sport through a uniform Anti-Doping system.
The first international legal text applied was the Anti-Doping Convention of the Council of Europe, signed in 1989. The worldwide fight against doping was given a new basis with the establishment of the World-Anti-Doping-Agency (WADA) in 1999, which drafted the World-Anti-Doping-Code. In 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), representing a majority of the states of the international community, adopted the “International Convention against Doping in Sport” and simultaneously declared its support for the WADA Anti-Doping programme.

The EU deals with doping issues at different levels and several EU institutions have produced a significant number of documents in this field.  

The EU Commission took up the topic in the “White Paper on Sport” in 2007 and plans to intensify its fight against doping between now and 2012 (Pierre de Coubertin Action Plan). To give an example, the “Internal Policies of the Union” Directorate General has published a study entitled “Doping in Professional Sport”, as previously requested by the European Parliament. It should further be remembered how the European Court of Justice passed an important judgement on doping in sports in 2006 (Meca-Medina-case C-519/04, 18th July 2006).

EU-institutions are interested in a structured dialogue and close cooperation between the relevant actors. This is underlined by the establishment of an EU “Anti-Doping” working group. Moreover, the Commission organized an Anti-Doping-Conference in Athens in May 2009.