European Parliament
Mário David  (PPE ),
in writing.
(PT)
The Treaty of Lisbon has given the European Union greater powers in the area of sport. This own-initiative report, for which I voted, represents the European Parliament’s reaction to the Commission communication on sport of 8 January 2011. It highlights the urgent need for a more active approach by the EU in the fight against doping, violence and intolerance, and in the regulation of a broad sector that is growing rapidly and employs around 15 million people, directly and indirectly. I should also like to stress that I, like my group, the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), believe sport is part of human and social development. I therefore argue that the European Union will, in the future, have to create a specific programme for sport, with a view to realising a genuinely European dimension for sport.

