The IOC and FIFA said the White Paper is “structured in full contradiction with the actual architecture of the Olympic movement, ignoring in particular the regulatory competences of the International Federations, the division of responsibilities between the latter and their European Confederations, the global nature of the issues and challenges currently affecting sport as well as the solutions which are today necessary.”
As sports governing bodies at world level they said, they are “committed to the protection of fair and open competition, to the promotion of athlete and player education and training, to the maintenance of competitive balance, and to the need to protect the integrity of our respective sports. These are all key features of the European sports model and we would like to see the European Commission work along side us to defend and nurture this model of sport – not just for the future development of sport but for the benefit of society as a whole.”
“Whilst the White Paper contains certain positive elements (regarding, for example, the recognition that national teams play an essential role across all sports in terms of identity and financial solidarity), we are disappointed that the EU has not reached firmer conclusions with regard to some of the key issues facing sport today, thus contributing to its future healthy development.”
“It was in particular expected that the White Paper would give concrete expression to the Nice Declaration including providing sport with a more stable legal environment for the future, fully recognising both the autonomy and specificity of sport as well as the central role and independence of the sports federations (governing bodies) in organising, regulating and promoting their respective sports. Concretely, there needs to be a clearer legal environment as regards the scope of regulatory discretion for sports governing bodies in sports-related matters.”
The International Rugby Board said it had welcomed and contributed to the White Paper initiative as it was originally intended to provide a solution to the problems confronted by sport as result of the fact that sport is not mentioned in the EU Treaty and therefore its unique nature is not properly taken into account in the application of EU Law.
But it “believes that further work needs to be done to ensure that the negative implications for sport flowing from the White Paper in its current form are minimised and long term damage to fundamental sporting imperatives such as competitive balance, mutual dependency and solidarity at all levels of sport is avoided.”
Moving forward the IRB in concert with other global and European sporting bodies will continue to work with the EU Member States, the European Parliament and the Commission, in order to ensure the appropriate inclusion of sport in the Reform Treaty and any other relevant European regulatory initiatives.
