Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-07-Speech-4-013"
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"en.20000907.1.4-013"2
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".
Mr President, doping is not a new problem. It did not even start this century, but comes from the last century. In fact, the first death from doping took place in 1896, when a cyclist took drugs.
The first measures against doping, however, began to be taken after the first Helsinki Olympic games in 1952, but it was in the Tour de France of 1998 that the problem became too big and the serious fight against it began. In fact, we have already heard this morning that it is a priority for the French Presidency, the Council and also for the Commission.
We have to assess why this problem exists and why doping has increased so much in recent years. On the one hand, it is worth mentioning the over-commercialisation that is affecting sport, as well as the saturation of sporting calendars and greater demands on sportsmen and women, both physical and mental. Before, the motto of sport was that of Pierre de Coubertin, ‘the important thing is taking part’. Now, however, it seems that whoever comes first wins, whoever comes second loses, and the rest just take part. On the other hand, we should not forget that, these days, an increasing number of tests are being done, many of them outside competitions, and this also means that, logically, more cases of doping are being discovered.
However, it is very important to distinguish between the two types of doping: on the one hand, there is intentional or planned doping, that is, a team plans which substances the sportsman or woman needs to take, and when, in order to improve his or her physical performance. Logically, this is more common in sports with greater financial resources. On the other hand, there is accidental doping, which often does not even improve the sportsman or woman’s physical performance. This tends to be more common in sports which have few resources, so that often public opinion does not even realise what has happened.
Obviously, we have to fight both types of doping, although each one should be approached in a very different manner. Combating intentional or planned doping is much more difficult. Police cooperation plays a very important role, because we should not forget that the trafficking of doping substances is worth EUR 1 billion per year. It is also important to listen to sportsmen and women when drawing up sporting calendars or planning a competition or trial. Sometimes, we ask them to do more than is physically possible without turning to external help. Overall, we need to fight doping globally. It is not an isolated problem for one Member State and therefore the presence of the European Union in the World Anti-Doping Agency is absolutely essential.
Combating accidental doping is much easier. It is mainly due to the lack of information among sportsmen and women, and the report therefore proposes that there should be an indicator on the boxes of pharmaceutical products, consisting of five Olympic rings and a traffic light. Thus, when buying a drug, sportsmen and women will be able to clearly see the red traffic light indicating the risk of testing positive, or the green light which indicates that there is no risk, or the amber light indicating that there may be a risk and that they should contact their doctor or a specialist for advice. This is very important, because we now have fifteen Member States with fifteen lists of prohibited substances, and in each country there can be a different brand name for the same drug. For this purpose, we ask for the intervention of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency.
However, even though the types of doping are different, sportsmen and women receive the same treatment and from the moment that they have a positive result they are considered to be guilty, with no right to prove their innocence and without an assessment of whether the doping was intentional or not, as occurs with other things in life. We also call on the European Commission to request that the Fifth Framework Programme carry out research into doping substances and their impact on the health of sportsmen and women, detection methods and the natural limits of hormones that can be produced by the human body.
With regard to laboratories, it is very important that they comply with ISO standards on uniform methods for collecting and analysing samples, and also that there should be protection and confidentiality, both in collection and in dealing with the case, in order to preserve sportsmen and women’s right to honour and privacy.
Finally, I will mention penalties. When a person other than the sportsman or woman has taken part, such as a club, an association, a federation, a doctor, a coach, etc., that person should also be subject to a penalty, exactly equal to that given to the sportsman or woman, because we should not forget that the person with the shortest working life will always be the sportsman or woman."@en1
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