On 12 July, Mr. Hannu Takkula, Member of the European Parliament (ALDE Group, Finland) and Rapporteur of the upcoming own-initiative Report on an integrated approach to sport policy, organised an exchange of views with sport stakeholders. This meeting was part of the consultation process in the run-up of the presentation of the draft Report in the responsible Culture and Education Committee (CULT) scheduled for September 2016.

For the sport stakeholder meeting, two main speakers were invited to present their views and to start the debate: Mr. Humbert de Biolley, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Brussels, and Mr. Folker Hellmund, Director of the EOC EU Office. Whereas Mr. de Biolley mainly focused on the Conventions of the Council of Europe and the Council’s activities in the field of good governance, Folker Hellmund addressed the wider EU sport policy and the role that the European Parliament can play in this policy during his keynote address on the contribution of the Olympic Movement. In terms of accessibility, he referred for instance to the sustainable financing of sport and to the access of grassroots sport actors to Erasmus+ Sport.

Furthermore, Folker Hellmund also called upon the European Parliament to seize the opportunity of the Report to contribute to the promotion of the positive aspects of sport, to focus also on grassroots sports and to impact or to inspire upcoming initiatives such as the new EU Work Plan for Sport 2017-2020 of the Sport Ministers or the negotiations on the future EU Funding Programmes. 

In the following debate, many sport stakeholders took the floor building on the three key topics that will be the basis for the report: accessibility, integrity and good governance. Among the sport organisations that expressed their views were the International Equestrian Federation, WADA, FIFA, UEFA, ENGSO and European Lotteries.