Body and mind in contest” “

The European Year of Education through Sport (EYES) with the slogan “Move your body, stretch your mind” is now in full swing. The EU is dedicating 2004, a significant year in terms of enlargement, European elections and negotiations on the Constitution, to a sector that interests almost all the citizens of the EU and that may contribute to a greater integration between peoples. “Returning to the Olympic spirit”. In Europe one person out of three practices some kind of physical activity: sport directly involves 150 million European citizens. In the 15 EU member states alone there exist 700,000 sports associations. Some two million educators, trainers, teachers and assistant, many of them volunteers, operate in the European sports sector today. There are thousands of sports associations with a Christian inspiration or associated with religious environments. The choice of this year’s theme was made in 2003, with a joint declaration of EU Parliament and Council. The Commission was given the task of launching an information and awareness-raising campaign on sport and its “multiple social, cultural and educational functions”. EYES involves not only the 15 member states, but also the 10 candidate countries about to join and three EFTA countries, namely Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The coincidence with the Olympic Games in Athens, the Paralympics and the European Soccer Championships in Portugal was not casual. “The appeal of these sporting events, followed throughout the world – explained those promoting the campaign, launched in Brussels last autumn -, provides a great opportunity to publicise sport and its educational and community value”. “The Olympic principles of Pierre de Coubertin, inventor of the modern Olympics, have lost none of their relevance – declared the Commissioner for culture and education, Luxembourg MEP Viviane Reding -: ideals like the formation of the person, the idea of amateur sport and the principle of loyalty still retain their validity today and embody the educational value of sport”. Reinforcing the role of sport in society. This year’s events will be numerous and involve sports societies and athletes of every discipline, schools, youth clubs, social and community centres for adults and the elderly, cultural associations. “The influence of sport on everyday life – added Reding – goes well beyond the sporting event itself: it influences interpersonal relations and the spheres of education, work and leisure. Moreover, sport is a key factor for the promotion of health”. The aim of the Commission, which organized the programme of events for 2004, is to “reinforce the role of sport in society”. “Sport – says the EYES programme – contributes not only to physical but also to spiritual well-being and combines, thanks to its social dimension, apparently contradictory aspects of daily life, such as competition and solidarity, the urge to win and the ability to work as a team”. The Commission’s intention is thus to “support, at the local, national and European level, projects aimed at the involvement of sport in the educational sector”. A budget of 6.5 million euros has been allocated to EYES. Particular emphasis will be placed – almost in continuation with the European Year of the Disabled, celebrated in 2003 – on the Paralympics, to be held from 17 to 28 September. Athens will host the games for disabled athletes, which for the first time since 1948 will be organized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Hundreds of events throughout the continent. The Union has also chosen some distinguished sports-men and -women as testimonials of EYES: they include the skiers Franz Klammer and Mark Girardelli, the marathon runner Rosa Mota, the canooing ace Steve Redgrave and the wheelchair-bound fencing champion Esther Weber-Kranz. The “official” dates on the EYES calendar include the inaugural concert on 1st January in Vienna, the European Soccer Championships in Lisbon in June, the Olympics in Greece in August and the Paralympics in late September. To these should be added hundreds of other events. From 1 to 5 February, Luxembourg hosted meetings between sportmen, educators and politicians. During the same period some cities in the UK, including London, were the venues of various cultural and sporting events. Initiatives to involve students are planned later in February in Athens, Thessalonica, Rheims and Helsinki. From 22 to 25 February Madrid will host a conference in the Parliament building and traditional games in the streets of the city. Brussels is planning a similar programme of events from 1 to 5 March.