By means of a series of new proposals adopted on 18 January 2011, the European Commission intends to take advantage at EU level of all the social, economic and organisational potential brought by sport. These initiatives, which are based on the results of consultations carried out by the European Commission, will mean the launch of twelve new projects in 2011.

The European Commission expects that athletes, sport organisations and citizens will benefit from these plans, which flow from the EU's new role under the Lisbon Treaty to support and coordinate sport policy in the Member States. The document entitled "Developing the European Dimension in Sport" describes a series of actions aimed at supporting challenges which cannot be met only by Member states. These actions are grouped in three sections.

Key actions proposed to support European dimension of sport

Societal role of sport

• Consider EU accession to the Anti-Doping Convention of the Council of Europe
• Develop European guidelines on combined sports training and general education
• Develop and implement security arrangements and safety requirements for international sport events
• Continue progress toward national guidelines based on the EU Physical Activity Guidelines
• Develop standards for accessibility of sport organisations, activities, events and venues through the European Disability Strategy
• Promote women's access to leadership positions in sport.

Economic dimension of sport

• Sport associations to establish mechanisms for the collective selling of media rights to ensure adequate redistribution of revenues
• More focus on sport-related intellectual property rights
• Exchange of good practices for transparent and sustainable financing of sport
• Monitoring of the application of state aid law in the field of sport
• Full exploitation of sport-related aspects of the Structural Funds
• Work towards comparable statistical data on sport for all Member States.

Organisation of sport

• Promote good governance in sport while taking into account its specific nature
• Launch a study on transfer rules and provide guidance on that basis
• Issue guidance on how to reconcile EU rules on the free movement of citizens with the organisation of competitions in individual sports on a national basis
• Consider further action regarding the activities of sports agents
• Support social partners and sport organisations to create an EU-level social dialogue for the sport and leisure sector

These proposals are based on the results of a consultation with Member States and sport stakeholders and take account of the experience gained in implementing the 2007 White Paper on Sport.