05/11/2024 Parliamentary support
In Athens, the Parliamentary Assembly today announced the creation of a new structure to add a parliamentary dimension to the current multi-stakeholder efforts to improve sports governance. The new Parliamentary Alliance for Good Governance and Integrity in Sport aims notably at reinforcing PACE’s capacity to address sport issues and to uphold the role and actions of national parliaments in the design and implementation of policies aimed at enhancing the governance and integrity of sport at both national and multilateral levels.
PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos, speaking at a two-day conference on sport in Athens, said: “We need safe, clean and inclusive sport as a means of driving positive change. We need athletes as role models for youth and society, as positive influencers of human development. We need sport stakeholders to act as agents of peace and promoters of global democratic stability. We need to protect sport from becoming a tool for economic crime and a source of legitimacy for undemocratic regimes…”.
“We recognise the complexity of the relationship between the sport movement and policymakers. The Alliance will provide a new framework for dialogue: we are committed to build up a new framework to reinforce the parliamentary dimension of this dialogue,” he added.
The Alliance will be an interparliamentary body, a forum of committed legislators who share the Council of Europe values of integrity, democracy, transparency and public accountability in sport. It will work with partners such as the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) or the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as well as relevant multi-stakeholder sport integrity, anti-corruption or human rights platforms and other stakeholder groups (e.g. academic institutions, law enforcement bodies, the sports industry, media, sports sponsors), that could enhance the reach and impact of the Alliance’s work.
Mogens Jensen (Denmark, SOC), PACE General Rapporteur on Governance and Ethics in Sport, stressed that the Alliance “will not only strengthen PACE’s capacity to address sport-related issues but will also elevate national parliaments’ roles in shaping values-based sports policies and advocating for good sports governance at all levels”. To begin this journey, he added, “we need your full support – both from this conference and from your parliaments - as well as adequate financial resources to ensure sustainable operations, foster partnerships and fulfil our mission. We do hope that this conference can take a stand in favour of the Alliance.”
The Alliance was presented in the context of the two-day Athens Conference on Sport, jointly organised by PACE and the Hellenic Parliament, which brought together parliamentarians, policy-makers, athletes, sporting organisations and experts in the cradle of the Olympics to discuss promoting safety, integrity, equality and inclusion in sport.