Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-12-Speech-1-072"
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"en.20071112.17.1-072"2
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".
Madam President, I should like to thank Mr Schmitt for his good report and for his constructive collaboration during the preparation of this. The role of sport generally and specifically within education is an incredibly important issue. Commissioner Kyprianou said less than a month ago that he believed that the greatest threat to the health of EU citizens was obesity. Unfortunately, I think that he is right, and therefore it is crucial that we focus on the problem and on what we can do to solve it. We have an important obligation to our children, particularly those who do not form good eating and sports habits at home for social or family-related reasons. Therefore, the focus on the role of sport in education is important.
School can and should play a major role in providing children with good habits, as children spend a large proportion of their day there. As pointed out in the report, it is therefore not necessary to discuss whether sport is essential within education. However, it is important that we discuss how we can ensure that there is more sport in school. It is also important that children develop good exercise habits as early on as possible. This is obvious for health reasons but, at the same time, as Mr Schmitt has also said, we know that exercise and sport can develop social relationships among children and young people and create social integration irrespective of ethnicity and social class. This is why sport is such an important tool. What can we do, therefore? We must ensure that children have the opportunity to do more exercise than is the case today. Sport should not just be something for affluent children. Sport should be a natural part of every child’s life. At this juncture, it is also necessary to ensure that sport does not only mean competitive sport, but something that everyone can participate in, and that is why it is important that sport be integrated within education.
There is therefore a general need for individual Member States to prioritise sport as a part of education much more than is the case today, and as part of this to ensure that the correct facilities are available and also qualified teachers, for example. It is therefore clearly a key responsibility for the Member States, but with this report we want to help focus on the problem and the possible solutions, and naturally also highlight what the EU can do in connection with this. In addition, there are three things that are required. We need teachers to have a greater insight into the reasons for the barriers to children participating in sport. A better relationship between sport at school and sport in leisure time also needs to be created. In addition, as has been mentioned previously, we need to prioritise resources, time and sports facilities. I am very pleased with the report; it is a good report and sets out the conditions that are required in order for sport to help improve the health of children. Therefore, the Socialist Group in the European Parliament wholeheartedly supports the report, but we feel that it is important that it be only the first step towards a major initiative to deal with the problem of obesity. We believe that it is necessary for us to both use more resources and take more time in this area."@en1
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