Sport: Community plan to combat doping

PURPOSE : To present the measures taken and measures now being planned to combat doping in sport. CONTENT : The European Council ,the Parliament and the Committee of the Regions have all expressed their concern with the scale of doping in sport and the severity of this practice, stressing the need for action at EU level.The Commission is particularly concerned with the underlying causes of doping: the nature of the practice has changed in that it is often no longer an isolated act on the part of individual sportspersons, practised on the day of competition. It is now systemic and organised at team level. A major cause of its spread is the overcommercialisation of sport. This commercialisation and the economic and financial stakes involved have led to a proliferation of sports competitions and have curtailed recovery time. The Commission has opted for a three pronged approach: - consult the European Group on Ethics and invite it to deliver its opinion on the ethical, legal and scientific dimensions of doping. The EGE delivered its opinion in November 1999 and ecommended several measures. These include the creation of an efficient health monitoring system for sportspersons, more specifically through establishing a specialised service providing sportspersons with medical and psychological assistance and information. - contribute to preparing the World Anti-doping Conference and work together with the Olympic Movement to create the World anti-Doping Agency, whose provisional headquarters will be in Lausanne. Amongst other things, the agency will be responsible for adopting and modifying the list of banned substances, and for the accreditation of testing laboritories and the harmonisation of testing methods. The Agency will plan and co-ordinate out-of-competition testing in close conjunction with the international federations and public authorities concerned. - mobilise Community instruments with a view to supplementing actions already underway in the Member States and vesting them with a Community dimension. Two types of action may be considered. Firstly, better co-ordination of regulatory measures and secondly, the mobilisation of Community programmes which can support positive anti-doping measures at European level. Efforts will focus on a variety of actions, notably the intensification of research into doping substances, detection methods, and the health impact of doping. Community instruments can also mobilise education and vocational training and make the most of police and judicial co-operation programmes. Actions in this area come within the direct or indirect remit of research, youth, education and training policies and programmes.�