Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-10-14-Speech-4-036"
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"en.20041014.4.4-036"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today, on the occasion of one of your first plenary sessions, you opted to put the issue of the fight against drug use on the agenda, which clearly reflects the priority that Parliament attaches to combating this scourge that is damaging the image of sport and the health of sportsmen and sportswomen.
Mr President, I should like to make two points, if I may. Firstly, the Constitutional Treaty represents a source of hope in this field because it states that young people’s physical and moral integrity, particularly that of young sportsmen and sportswomen, must be protected. We must therefore step up support for the Member States and the federations, which will still be primarily responsible. Additionally, we can support Member States’ activities in prevention, information and awareness-raising.
I should also like to mention a very important aspect for all future action, namely the ruling handed down by the Court in the Meca-Medina case on 30 September, which had the merit of clarifying the place of the fight against drug use in the Community’s legal environment and which ultimately confirmed the Commission’s position - one such as I have been advocating for five years - and this is to be welcomed. The ruling stated that the fight against drug use did not pursue any economic goal. In the Court’s view, the International Olympic Committee’s anti-doping regulation does not, therefore, fall within Community competition law. The purpose of this regulation is to preserve the spirit of sport and the health of athletes. To put it another way, it is a sports regulation, which leaves the main responsibility for regulating the matter to the sports federations.
Mr President, I am very pleased with both the conclusion itself and with the way in which the ruling was expressed. I have effectively been trying to demonstrate, for five years, that the Commission is not solely interested in sport as an economic phenomenon, but that sport is, above all, a social activity with educational and ethical aspects. I also know that my successor will follow this path, because it is important that Parliament support Mr Figel on this matter, as it has always supported me. We have a responsibility to our society, and, with sport being such an important element in this society, we thus have a responsibility in the field of sport.
Drug use is not, at the moment, only a matter of fair competition, it is also a problem of public health. The Commission shares the determination that you have shown in this field. In fact, as you know, I have made strenuous efforts for the past five years to bring drug use onto the Community’s agenda and to take the most effective action possible within our competences. On the day that I leave this portfolio, to which I have devoted a great deal of energy, I should like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to present you with a breakdown of the progress that we have made together and to set out some guidelines for the future.
The breakdown is as follows: I feel that, in five years, we have done as much as we possibly could within the existing legal framework, and bearing in mind the reluctance on the part of several Member States and sections of the sporting world to consider Community level to be an essential level in the fight against drug use.
As you are aware, sport is not yet a Community competence. To put it another way, the Commission could only intervene in strict compliance with its competences, and in this field, the Commission can only intervene, in any event, with the aim of complementing and strengthening action taken by sports organisations and by Member States.
In recent years, we have been obliged to behave like teachers in explaining what our powers and our limits are in this field. Indeed, on the one hand, we have been asked why the Commission did not take more initiatives, and on the other, we have been told that we were launching initiatives to harmonise procedures for checking lists of doping products; in other words that we were appropriating powers that we do not have. The reality is that we have done a great deal within our field of competence: information, prevention, training, awareness-raising and supporting projects such as the athlete’s passport, multimedia information tools and scientific studies. We have promoted dialogue aimed at cooperation.
What does that mean in specific terms? The beginning of my tenure coincided with a period in which drug use was making front page news, with the events of the 1998 Tour de France. We were able to see that national responses were no longer adequate and that cooperation – even coordination – between Member States was crucial. At the end of 1999, I asked the European Group on Ethics, whose President at that time was Mrs Lenoir, to give us its opinion. This was the first time that this body had spoken on the subject of drug use, and the opinion that it gave proved extremely useful in the ensuing years and will continue to do so in the future. It has been the springboard for everything that we have done. In December 1999, a Community support plan to combat drug use was adopted by the Commission. This plan was received favourably by Parliament. Mrs Zabel was the rapporteur at the time. We were calling, in particular, for the concern over drug use to be incorporated into all Community policies. Within the framework of that plan and with Parliament’s help, an annual budget of EUR 5 million was earmarked for projects to combat drug use – studies, research, conferences and actions. We were thus able to support projects that promoted both information and research in the field. I should like to mention, for example, our study on the use of drugs in gyms, together with projects involving young people and a list of the laws and regulations in the Member States. Three studies were carried out by external consultants: on the socio-economic factors of drug use, protecting the young and the European communication strategy.
Let us speak now about WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency. I made a substantial personal investment to ensure that an agency came into being, and I fought particularly hard to advocate principles for the purposes of effective action, so that the new agency corresponded to the wishes of those wanting to see zero tolerance applied to drug use. I stressed the need for the agency to be independent and transparent. WADA was taking shape along the lines of what we wanted and was set up in 1999. Owing to a discrepancy between WADA’s budgetary rules and procedures and Community law, it was not possible to provide Community funding, and I do not see that this can change in the future. The draft Constitutional Treaty, which does make reference to sport, will not bring any change in this regard. It must be pointed out that WADA is doing an honourable job. I would like to see it become an international institution established under public law. This would, to my mind, make it more effective and give it more credibility than the current body, which is governed by private law, a factor that poses problems.
After all, the fight against drug use is, by definition, an international phenomenon. This is the main reason why we arranged the Marrakesh Conference in January 2002, which gave us the opportunity to look into the problem of drug use with our colleagues from the Mediterranean area. I should also like to mention the European Year of Education through Sport, during which we set up an information and warning system for our young people; in other words, an entire prevention system. Prevention is the key word, because we are not here to be repressive, which is why the Commission must place the emphasis on the aspect of prevention. It must address the phenomena that help to create an environment that is conducive to the phenomenon of drug use – the educational background of sports coaches, the role of the medical field and the pressure for success coming from sponsors.
As you can see, very important work has been done over the past five years. It has been joint work, within the framework of which I have always been able to count on Parliament’s total support. In the future, this responsibility will fall to the new Commissioner, Mr Figel, and I know he is aware of the importance of this issue."@en1
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