Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-25-Speech-3-443"
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"en.20090325.32.3-443"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, the informal council of Sports Ministers in Biarritz in November 2008 was the first real European sports forum at the level of transnational cooperation.
Whatever the solution, Commissioner, it must respect not only the legal procedure of the market, but also the public role of sport and the fact that it is a social commodity and must be accessible to every section of society. The role of and the way in which sports clubs are organised are important factors in how they negotiate with the European Commission and with the Committee on Culture and Education and the European Parliament.
It is a first substantive and important step. Principles such as subsidiarity, autonomy and self-regulation in sport are broadly applied at national and regional level. However, they cannot answer the basic question of whether sport ultimately has a social role or a purely commercial dimension which inevitably turns a sporting activity into a product of the internal market.
Today, the intense commercialisation of sport and the fact that it has been opened up to purely commercial sectors, such as advertising through the mass media, have lent it purely economic attributes. The Court of Justice of the European Communities has already been petitioned several times to rule, in specific cases, on whether a sporting activity is a service of purely social benefit or if, on the contrary, it also encompasses economic aspects which imply that it is a service of general economic interest.
Even though the specific social role of sport does not warrant its general exemption from the rule of Community law, it continues to be recognised and to allow limitations, provided that such exemptions are warranted by the social role of sport per se.
Commissioner, there are certain questions which are also asked in the question by our committee:
firstly, the same concern about the autonomy of organisations; the autonomy of sports clubs and federations must be safeguarded. However, there are clear cases in which self-regulation does not safeguard equal treatment of all stakeholders;
secondly, the Commission urgently needs to give us the necessary guidelines on the question of the definition of the concept of a service of general economic interest in sport and the criteria by which the freedoms of the internal market and the rules of competition are imposed and
thirdly, one issue which may not be mentioned in the oral question but which is an issue of major importance is that which has arisen at national level, namely how to manage the rights of state or private radio and television stations to cover sporting fixtures. The emergence on the market of numerous new private service providers using new technologies and telecommunications was what basically lured many sports federations into making preferential sales of these rights.
However, it should be emphasised at this point that it is precisely because of the social role of sport that it would be a mistake to promote a system from which solidarity between clubs is missing and economic competition is strengthened. Collective bargaining, a matter which Mr Mavrommatis also addresses in his report, should be promoted as the most suitable and fitting solution for the sport sector."@en1
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