RECOMMENDATION FOR SECOND READING on the Council common position for adopting a European Parliament and Council decision establishing the European Year of Education through Sport 2004
(9605/2/2002 – C5‑0498/2002 – 2001/0244(COD))
28 November 2002 - ***II
Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport
Rapporteur: Doris Pack
PROCEDURAL PAGE
At the sitting of 14 May 2002 Parliament adopted its position at first reading on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council decision establishing the European Year of Education through Sport 2004 (COM(2001) 584 - 2001/0244 (COD)).
At the sitting of 23 September 2002 the President of Parliament announced that the common position had been received and referred to the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport (9605/2/2002 - C5-0498/2002).
The committee had appointed Doris Pack rapporteur at its meeting of 12 December 2001.
It considered the common position and draft recommendation for second reading at its meeting of 11-12 Novembre 2002 and 28 November 2002.
At the latter it adopted the draft legislative resolution with 1 abstention.
The following were present for the vote:Michel Rocard, chairman; Theresa Zabell, vice-chairman; Doris Pack, rapporteur; Konstantinos Alyssandrakis, Ole Andreasen, Pedro Aparicio Sánchez, Christopher J.P. Beazley, Thierry de La Perriere, Marielle de Sarnez, Raina A. Mercedes Echerer, Lissy Gröner, Ruth Hieronymi, Ulpu Iivari, Renzo Imbeni, Karin Junker, Maria Martens, Pietro-Paolo Mennea, Juan Ojeda Sanz, Doris Pack, Christa Prets, Gianni Vattimo, Sabine Zissener, Myrsini Zorba.
The recommendation for second reading was tabled on 28 Novembre 2002.
DRAFT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION
European Parliament legislative resolution on the Council common position for adopting a European Parliament and Council decision establishing the European Year of Education through Sport 2004 (9605/2/2002 – C5‑0498/2002 – 2001/0244(COD))
(Codecision procedure: second reading)
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Council common position (9605/2/2002 – C5‑0498/2002 ),
– having regard to its position at first reading[1] on the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council ([2]),
– having regard to Article 251(2) of the EC Treaty,
– having regard to Rule 78 of its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the recommendation for second reading of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport (A5‑0419/2002),
1. Approves the common position;
2. Notes that the act is adopted in accordance with the common position;
3. Instructs its President to sign the act with the President of the Council pursuant to Article 254(1) of the EC Treaty;
4. Instructs its Secretary-General duly to sign the act and, in agreement with the Secretary-General of the Council, to have it published in the Official Journal of the European Communities;
5. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and Commission.
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
BACKGROUND - THE COMMISSION'S PROPOSAL
1. A third of the population of the EU regularly takes part in some form of recreational physical activity and there are over 600 000 sports clubs in the Member States: sport is thus an important social phenomenon in Europe. It is also an excellent educational instrument. Aside from the well-established health benefits of regular physical exercise, sport helps young people acquire important social skills. As the Olympic Charter puts it, sport embodies 'a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play'.
2. The social significance of sport is the subject of Declaration no. 29 appended to the Amsterdam Treaty and Annex IV of the Presidency Conclusions of the Nice European Council, both of which urged the Community to take account of sport in its different policies and programmes. But neither of these is a legal base and, in the absence of this, Community action in the field of sport has thus hitherto been confined to pilot and preparatory actions.
3. Based on Article 149, the Commission called for the organisation of a European Year of Education through Sport in 2004 - a year in the course of which the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held: 2003 was designated as a preparatory year. The overall goal was 'to allow better use to be made of the educational values of sport in improving curricula, and particularly parallel education, by establishing a broader partnership between education organisations and sports organisations'.
4. The Commission proposal identified seven objectives for the Year:
- ∙to make education and sports organisations aware of the need for cooperation
- ∙ to highlight the role sport can play in promoting physical prowess and developing
social skills
- ∙to stress the connections between voluntary activity, parallel education and sports
- ∙to use sports to promote mobility and pupil exchanges
- ∙to encourage thought about how sports can help the social integration of
disadvantaged groups
- ∙to encourage sport in schools to promote physical well-being
- ∙to consider how the educational needs of young sportsmen and women are to be
met.
5. These objectives were to be attained by means of: meetings and events; voluntary actions during the Olympic and Paralympic Games; information and promotion campaigns; cooperation with the media; surveys and reports; events to highlight best practice; and financial support for transnational, national, regional or local initiatives to promote the objectives of the Year. The Commission proposed a budget for the Year of EUR 11,5 million. But it also acknowledged that, if the Year were to be a success, it would need the full and active support of the Member States and sports organisations. The Commission also undertook to coordinate its activities with those of other international organisations such as the Council of Europe and UNESCO.
PARLIAMENT'S FIRST READING
6. At first reading in May 2002, the Parliament adopted 42 amendments to the Commission porposal. These fell into four groups:
- ∙essentially linguistic amendments which sought to make the text clearer, shorter, accurate and consistent;
- ∙amendments deleting references to the convening by the Commission of a 'high level panel' of experts and the commissioning of surveys and studies;
- ∙amendments providing for the staging of a schools competition in each participating country;
- ∙amendments stressing the contribution that voluntary activity makes to non-formal learning, strengthening references to dissemination of good practice, and underlining the need to support networks highlighting the educational role of sport.
THE COUNCIL'S COMMON POSITION
7. The Council adopted its common position on 14 October. The common position approves the essence of the Commission proposal. Where the Council has amended the proposal it has done so in order to:
- ∙bring out more clearly the contribution of the planned sporting activities to quality education;
- ∙ensure that the principle of subsidiarity is clearly adhered to and that the Community's contribution is confined to activities with a European dimension;
- ∙establish an advisory committee, in line with agreed comitology procedures;
- ∙restrict surveys and studies at Community level to those that assess the impact of the Year;
- ∙avoid lists of sporting events which will take place in Europe in 2004.
8. In its response to Parliament's first reading, the Commission accepted in full or in part 32 of the 42 amendments tabled. The Council has accepted the majority of these. Where it has rejected Parliament amendments accepted by the Commission it has done so because it deemed these unnecessary in the light of interinstitutional agreements (amendments 10 and 11); inappropriate because expressing value judgements (amendment 6); superfluous because covered elsewhere in the text (amendment 16); incompatible with the principle of subsidiarity (amendment 27); or inconsistent because of the inclusion of a reference to an advisory committee (amendment 32).
RAPPORTEUR'S COMMENTS
9. The Council has approved the essence of the Commission proposal (including the budget). It has done a good job in further improving the linguistic quality of the proposal and in bringing out more clearly the contribution to quality education of the sporting activities planned in conjunction with the Year. Its acknowledgement that there is a limited need for further studies and surveys is also welcome as a sensible money-saving measure. And the establishment of an advisory committee, in line with interinstitutional agreements on comitology, follows the example of Decisions establishing other European Years, such as the European Year of Languages 2001 and the planned European Year of Disabled People 2003.
10. While the Council has followed the Commission in rejecting Parliament's first reading amendments providing for the organisation of a schools sports competition, the Council minutes will include a declaration that: the Council notes the Parliament's political will that Article 3 of the Decision should enable school and sports organisations to propose mounting major educational events, taking place in all participating countries and emphasising the value that Olympic ideals bring to education. Given the initial reluctance of the Commission and Council to accept even an oblique reference to a schools competition, this declaration probably represents as much progress on this matter as the Parliament could reasonably hope to make.
11. For all of these reasons, your rapporteur recommends that the common position be accepted as it stands.