Nicosia, 24th September as holders of the rotating EU Presidency for this semester, Cyprus has recently hosted a series of meetings on EU sport. The first was the European Forum on Sport that each ear brings together governments and sports leaders from the sports organisations of EU Member States.
Invited by the NOC of Cyprus, the EOC EU Commission also met in Nicosia before joining the Forum. EOC President Patrick Hickey (IRL), who chairs the Commission, and its Vice-President Octavian Morariu (ROU) led the meeting, also attended by EOC EU Office director Folker Hellmund.
The Forum, which this year focused on sport’s contribution to the EU economy and the scourge of match-fixing, is the largest platform for exchanging views on issues of sport and on plans for sport within the EU, and gives all actors an opportunity to join in the debate on them.
The Forum concluded with a resolution on match-fixing being adopted by the Cypriot government, the EU Commission and other actors involved, calling for action in five specific areas: education, prevention, good governance, surveillance and sanctions, and international cooperation.
EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Ms Androulla Vassiliou (CYP), who is also the EU’s person responsible for sport, also attended the Forum, as well as the informal meeting of EU Sports Ministers that followed, the main themes of which were the role of sport and active aging (2012 is EU year for Active Aging), and European representation within WADA.
The meeting closed with a presentation by the Irish delegation that illustrated its priorities in the field of sport for its Presidency, which begins next 1st January.