With 27 European Union (EU) Member States present, the Latvian Presidency on 17 February chaired the traditional meeting of the Directors General for Sports where issues on anti-doping were debated. The meeting also focused on grassroots sport, which is one of the Latvian Presidency priorities and was the theme at the EU Sport Conference. Entitled “Sport and Physical Activity for Development of the Human Capital”, the conference brought together 130 experts in the field on 16 February at the National Library of Latvia.
With the revised World-Anti Doping Code in force from 1 January 2015, this is a special year for doping issues. As the meeting in Riga showed, not all Member States have harmonised the local legislation, rules and regulations with the revised version of the Code. With the rapid developments in medicine, doping is a serious problem requiring fresh approaches constantly – in research, control and various preventive educational activities. Participants of the meeting noted a need for an intensified data sharing and closer cooperation since doping is a plague that cannot be fought alone.
Historically, anti-doping efforts have focused on professional sport. There is, however, a growing concern of misused substances in recreational sport, too. In an active debate the Member States expressed readiness to combat doping in recreational sport and pointed out the need to pay more attention to dealing with this issue, in particular, suppliers of doping products.
The meeting also covered the development of grassroots sport, with a particular focus on street sport, which was introduced to the participants by Mr Māris Šlēziņš, the Chairman of the World Street Workout and Calisthenics Federation, the Chairman of the Latvian Street Workout Sports Association. With sport as the developer of personality and soft skills which can lead to improved employability, the Member States pointed out that street sports is a channel for reaching out to audiences which would be hard to reach through traditional sport.