The EU and sport probably aren’t two things that are often thought of together but a Committee which I chair has spent the past few months considering just that.
The Lisbon Treaty gave the EU for the first time a formal competence to act in the field of sport. It is a limited competence and Member States still control sports policy, but the EU can now support Member States’ actions and take sport systematically into account in its own work. Our inquiry looked at grassroots sport and how the new competence might support it and extend its benefits.
There was a certain degree of scepticism among some members of the Committee at the start of the inquiry, but we heard powerful evidence which convinced us that sport can make a valuable contribution to policy areas in which the EU has a stake. For example, we heard from volunteers who run sports projects in disadvantaged communities where they have reduced anti-social behaviour and brought together diverse or fragmented communities. We heard about projects which are helping people into education, employment and training by developing skills like teamwork and confidence; and projects to reduce feelings of social isolation amongst the elderly or migrant communities.
Sport alone obviously isn’t the answer to these complex problems, but I’m convinced it’s a powerful tool which policy makers should use. Our report recommends ways in which the EU and the UK can integrate sport into relevant policies and funding programmes.
The EU can also affect sport in lots of hidden ways, and it’s here that we found that the new competence is particularly helpful to make sure that sport is taken into account. For example, EU legislation on the single market and intellectual property can affect the amount of money available for grassroots projects. And we suggest ways in which the EU can avoid placing unnecessary regulatory burdens on sport, particularly where they affect the volunteers who are essential to grassroots sport.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the European Commission and the Government respond to our report. I’m convinced that the new competence offers real potential to benefit sport and the millions of people who enjoy participating in it across Europe. I hope it will be used to ensure that even more people can reap the benefits of doing so.
You can find our report on the Committee webpage at www.parliament.uk/hleug.
My Lady, sport, exercise has an amazing effect on humans it is a scientific fact. It improves mood and ability through released chemicals in the body. It is essential not only to physical wellbeing but also mental health.
My children love sport, all kinds, and frequently ask for gym membership which is simply beyond my financial ability. Even swimming is a costly pastime. We need to do more to enable children to participate freely for the good of the nations future health. Too much time is spent in front of computer screens and we need to give children an alternative.
I realise that finance is a major factor but we need to balance this with future costs to the NHS. No one is saying it should be free at all times but we can give a little to get more in return. Facilities that can give free sessions two or more times a week would benefit the children and the country greatly.
However I’m not convinced that coming from the EU any directive would be warmly welcomed especially by business enterprises.
Let us be careful, about ’putting too many eggs in one basket’;
especially in any ‘country of the blind where the one-eyed man becomes ‘king’’.
We really need to focus our major budgeting, of energies, timeframes, things, places, and monies, upon the bigger human-development, health, and longterm wellbeing domains, beginning always with very gentle and slow-movements in some set or random sequence, throughout the whole body –
and back again.
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‘Sport’ connotes vigorous games and contests,
some utterly unfair, and some arguably immoral such as shotgun and telescopic-rifle shooting of “game”, cock-fighting, poisonous-spraygun chasing of flies, moths, spiders around a kitchen, living-room, bedroom or whole-house including the garden, bear-baiting, and baby-seals-hatcheting.
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‘Sports’ also connotes team-games such as Rugby, Soccer, Hockey, Basketball, Baseball and Swimming;
and it connotes lesser number games and ‘contests’ such as in Wrestling, Boxing, Archery but also in Fire-arms shooting, and “game-birds” shotgunning.
It encompasses Athletics including Schools’ Sports-days, Horse-riding, Rodeo-bronco-busting but also Bull-fighting and Fox-hunting – all spectacular, but profiteering and “exclusive”.
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‘Sports’ place high value upon Strength, Quickness, and Accuracy, and upon “Winning” (but “the Loser standing small”).
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What is genericly-needed, by the whole population, is sustainworthy holistic-living fitness.
Thereto and therein we shall find better guidance and activities from pursuing the “wisdom of the body-moving”, “biofeedback at its best without instruments”, “your body in balance”, “better movement for all”, and I would certainly include “isometrics” and “natural vision improvement”.
Any nation (meaning the People) needs every level of fitness-maintenance and the building thereof, not dominantly or even majorly the “Competitive Sports Monopole” (my neologism perhaps).
‘Sport’ is fine, for the fit, frisky, and financially-well-off;
but it also sucks in the lonely and less-discerning or less-well-nurtured of The Public.
Tragicly it has a deleterious effect upon a huge percentage of the rest of the nation, whose participation stops at their TV remote-control from their individually well-cushioned armchair.
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One is better off staying at home with a gentle-exercise self-help manual, video, or TV ‘Body-In-Balance’ programme, with a variety of fitness-enhancing do-your-own-easy-movements.
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Therefore, for your self-helping –
of body, mind, spirit, emotions and personal-energies :
“Instant Stretches” (Evans);
“Your Body: biofeedback at its best (without instruments) (Jencks);
“Wisdom of the Body Moving” (Hartley);
“Natural Vision Improvement” (Goodrich).
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Also I heartily recommend looking into
“Effort” (Laban & Lawrence) or
“Laban For All” (Newlove & Dalby).
This latter is both a mind-educational and a body-helping improvement upon the original shorter and succinct “Effort” –
but it appears to omit an essential in movement-awareness for many of us “what if i ‘specialise’ and don’t develop all-round movement ability ?” which Laban includes in “Effort”
e.g. if you are habitually focusing too much upon Firmness you’ll look ‘cramped’, whereas the opposite focus on Gentleness gets you looking ‘sloppy’.
Laban briefly describes six other ‘abnormalities’ (my term) that can insidiously envelop the ‘imbalanced’ – the unwary – the non-all-round you.
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We can every one of us succeed in having an all-round body-mind-and-spirit health and vibrant tonus;
but only a relative few will thrive off the essentially competitive ”winner-takes-all” domain, of “Sports”.
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1911W06Apr11.JSDM.
I don’t know whether the baroness is a former international sportswoman, but she will probably know that if there were a contest between the EU and the USA in field and track events, the USA would win about 9 out of ten of the events, a fact which that exceptional sportsman Steve Cram and I discussed on air (his air not mine) a couple of years ago.
It took some thinking about but from Scotland to southern Greece there are few Europeans would last the course, the main reason being the State college scholarships for “majoring”
in Sport of some kind or another. They all do it, and consider it a college accolade when their champ wins international events.
Every college out of hundreds offers sports majors scholarships, but how many do that in
Europe least of all UK?
I trust the committee interviewed the exceptional manager/coach of the British team track events, Mr Johnson, who has a phenomenal grasp of the techniques of running, as Jonathen Davies for example, like it or not, does for
Rugby sports.
They are trades; they are journeymen; their careers are short, and a few of them can earn big money. The dedication of the modern professional sportsman and woman is exemplary.
Sport is often seen to be useful as a social tool for developing ‘good’ citizens because it functions as a moral laboratory. This is due to the fact that arbitrary rules (e.g. not touching the ball with your hands) are put in place to reach trivial ends (getting the ball in a goal). If you consistently break the rules, you are penalised, the worse penalty being that you are no longer able to play the game. My intuition is that for children in particular these rules are akin to the ones in society (e.g. not cycling on the pavement) but since the goal is trivial in sport, the consequences of breaking the rule are far less serious and as such, sport provides a safe environment in which to learn. As such, children learn the necessity of abiding by rules (or laws) for their own benefit in that it means they are allowed to continue to participate in the game (or in civil life). I guess it’s like a form of social contract theory, in that (generally) conforming to the rules of society are of more benefit to oneself than breaking them (since if you consistently break a law you will no longer be able to play the game of being a free citizen).
So sport in this way functions as a moral laboratory in which children can learn the concepts of fairness (fair play); abiding by rules; dedication, commitment and perseverance to improvement; team-work; responsibility of leadership; respect for authority, etc. without having serious consequences if they sometimes fail.
(BTW I couldn’t get that link to the document to work at the end of the post)
Apologies Emily link fixed!
Arrggh!
The use of the San Sebastian Stadium by Biarritz and Toulouse sports clubs,(28000) and the use of the 55,000 seater Olympic stadium by Toulon and Perpignan for big matches, shows how (rugby) sport is developing in different countries, such as Spain.
But is that kind of exploitation that the Baroness really wants?
All dominated by Media exploitation of huge mass markets for the games in the arm chair at home paying half as much as they would if the went to the game itself. Empty stands does not mean NO spectators.
It may mean 100,000s at home in the armchair with boots on and shirt on chest, in front of the fire, cheering wildly for their team.
Encouraging school sports can be the only meaning of the Baroness’ “exploitation”.
Great blog! Sport is such an underestimated part of the policy spectrum, and I am so glad to see the committee take the opportunity to really put it on the map. The passions that sport arouse are second to none as far as I am concerned, and this competence will finally turn that into economic and social opportunities across Member States. No longer will the opportunities of sport just benefit 22 greedy men kicking a ball about the pitch! I really look forward to reading the report over the coming days.