EU sports policy

Sport was laid down in EU treaties for the first time in the Treaty of Lisbon, which came into effect on 01.12.2009. In articles 6 and 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the significance of sport for Europe was expressly acknowledged, and the promotion of the European dimension of sport as a goal of the Community was emphasised. In the second half of 2018, Austria assumed the presidency of the EU for the third time in total (after 1998 and 2006), and for the first time since the Treaty of Lisbon.

Legal basis:

The European Union assumes a supporting and coordinating role. It is responsible for carrying out measures to support, coordinate or supplement the measures of the Member States in the field of sport. The special features of sport, its structures based on voluntary engagement, and its social and educational function are to receive special consideration.

 The EU is committed to preserving the subsidiarity principle in sport. The main competence for sports thus remains in the hands of the Member States, and there are no plans for harmonisation of the national legal provisions in the area of sports. The essential changes for sport are therefore not of a legal nature, but rather of an institutional and financial kind.

The Hungarian Commissioner Tibor Navracsics has been responsible for sport in the European Commission since 2014. The competences of the "sports department", which is attached to the Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), have been upgraded since the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect. In the European Parliament, the field of sports is the responsibility of the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT)

• To the EU Commission
• Treaty of Lisbon