Structured dialogue with sports organisations

European sport is characterised by a large number of complex and diverse structures which enjoy different types of legal status and levels of autonomy in Member States. Moreover, European sports structures are generally less developed than their national and international counterpart, and they normally cover the entire continent and not only the EU.

For the European Commission, regular and structured dialogue with the European sports movement is a key condition for implementing the White Paper on Sport, to ensure that the specific characteristics of sport are taken into account in EU policy-making, and to enhance knowledge on the side of the sport sector of the application of EU law to sport.

The structured dialogue between the Commission and the sports movement has taken different forms in the past. In recent years, the European Commission initiated several consultations with sport governing bodies and other stakeholders and numerous meetings and conferences have been organised to strengthen further the structured dialogue as put forward in the White Paper. A highlight of the structured dialogue is the annual EU Sport Forum, organised and financed by the Commission in order to offer a wide platform for discussion about sport at EU level.