Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-30-Speech-3-096"
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"en.20051130.12.3-096"2
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".
Madam President, sport can be the cause of war, Honduras being a case in point, but it can also bring people together. North and South Korea, united in one Olympic team, spring to mind. Sport can help societies heal their wounds; one thinks of the Rwandan football teams made up of Hutus and Tutsis, for example. Sport can be a positive way of expressing rivalry between peoples without this ending up in bad behaviour or use of violence – just think of the Netherlands and Germany, but is also a tough business. Children are taken out of developing countries and tried out on the pitch as child slaves in big European clubs and if they are deemed not to be up to scratch, we find them lost in Belgian forests, bemused, without a visa or money.
2005 is the Year of Sport and that is why I urge the Council and the Commission, on behalf of the European Union, to seize the UN Year of Sport and Development as an opportunity to make much firmer agreements on banning the recruitment and abuse of very young footballers. That is only possible by means of long-term training and a visa requirement, with the club not only taking on responsibility for these children, but also, refraining from treating them later on as their property, but instead paying them fairly.
The Commission could mount the same campaign against racism on European pitches. Here too, a European level playing field with European agreements between European clubs is imminent. Commissioner, you are undoubtedly familiar with the Fair Network and all the good work they do and the support that you give them.
What I find objectionable, particularly since – as the Council spelled out clearly a moment ago – we have only just set up the frameworks for the European development policy with priorities for the Millennium Objectives and good governance, is that yet another – in this case UN – Christmas bauble will be added to the aid tree. It is the wrong reflex at the wrong level.
I applaud the fact that games and sport in education will be linked up to developing countries. I also applaud the fact that a number of Member States are actively throwing their weight behind this sports project. I respect subsidiarity, but let the EU focus, via the Commissioner for Sport, on a number of agreements with European sports clubs, such as UEFA, on a ban on young football slaves and a clampdown on racism on European pitches. It is better that we have cohesive policy such as this one than that development policy should become fragmented."@en1
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