29 Jul Call For 100 Million More Europeans To Be More Active By 2020
The International Sport and Culture Association has called upon the institutions of the European Union to back their latest call to get 100 million more European citizens to take part of physical activity and sport by the year 2020.
A Public Hearing on Sport for All and Physical Activity held at the European Parliament on 29th June, discussed the role of the Sport for All sector in the effort to close the physical activity gap and thereby giving more Europeans the opportunity to practice sport. This meeting was attended by the European Healthy Stadia Network where Network Coordinator, Matthew Philpott, spoke about the possibilities of increasing levels of grassroots sport and physical activity through the supporting role of professional sports stadia.
Grass-root sport is today engaging 40 % of all Europeans in physical activity on a regular basis. However, there is a considerable gap between European countries with regard to the degree of involvement of citizens in recreational sport and physical activity. The European Union has the potential to increase the number of citizens regularly active in sport and physical activity by another 100 million and both ISCA and the Healthy Stadia Network believe that this should become a common European vision.
As a follow up to this event, letters requesting support for this initiative have been sent to Commissioner John Dalli (DG SANCO) and Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou (DG Education and Culture). In addition, MEP’s Joanna Senyszyn, Ivo Belet, Mary Honeyball, Seán Kelly, Hannu Takkula have prepared a Written Declaration on increased European Union support for grassroots sports to the European Parliament. The Written Declaration will be presented at the Parliament on 1st September 2010 with the goal of having more than 50% MEP’s support and sign the Written Declaration.
For more information: www.isca-web.org/english/iscaeurope/iscaeurope/petition
