1st Position of the European Parliament on the White Paper on Sport
The report by Manolis Mavrommatis to the European Parliament on the White Paper on Sport will be accepted on the occasion of the briefing to be held at the plenary session in Brussels on 8 May.
The final draft report on the White Paper on Sport was adopted by the responsible Committee on Culture and Education on 14 April.
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2nd Conference at the European Parliament: Responsible Gaming in Europe
More than 120 representatives of sports associations, state-owned and private providers of gambling services and politicians met at the European Parliament on 17 April for a Responsible Gaming Day. MEPs Fjellner (Sweden, EVP), Ferreira (Portugal, SPE), Toubon (France, EVP) and Manders (Netherlands, Liberals) advocated harmonising the European gambling sector by means of EU legislation.
Christofer Fjellner was in favour of an open discussion. Moderate market liberalisation could only take place at EU level, however, if the private gambling companies felt a serious responsibility towards the Member States common good objectives, for example financing sport. The focus of responsible companies should be on consumer protection and the integrity of sport. This should continue to guarantee the integrity and long-term financing of sport.
For Joel Hasse Ferreira, the only possible solution is a European provision on account of the rapid technological development, particularly regarding online gambling. Any EU legislation would have to provide answers to the questions of how minors can be better protected and what provisions could rule out future infringement proceedings against Member States.
Toine Manders called for the subject of gambling and sports betting to finally be put on the agenda of political consultations by the European Parliament. The blockade by the governments in the Council of Ministers should be broken. The existing legal insecurity promotes illegal practices. The Italian licensing model in the field of sports betting shows that there are good options for regulating this area. He regretted that the Commission had no intention at all of launching a legislation initiative.
There is a growing number of voices in the European Parliaments Committee on Internal Market calling for an own-initiative report on gambling. Such a report, which would be likely to aim, among other things, to maintain the integrity of sport, could be put on the Committees agenda after the summer break.
