Lithuania and eight other European countries urge European Commission to review support for sports bodies taking a soft line on Russia
Lithuania has joined other European countries in writing to Glenn Micallef, the European Commissioner responsible for sport. In an official letter, the countries call for tougher action and a review of European Union financial and political support for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other international sports organisations following their decisions to readmit athletes from aggressor states to international competition.
The initiative was drafted by Estonia and also endorsed by Latvia, Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Finland and Denmark.
The initiative seeks to ensure that EU values and sanctions policy are reflected throughout international sports organisations and that financial support is not provided to organisations that take a soft line on aggressor states. The letter calls for the IOC and other sports organisations, including the International Fencing Federation, World Aquatics and the International Gymnastics Federation, to be excluded from EU funding programmes, including Erasmus+. It also proposes restricting these organisations’ participation in EU forums and events, including the EU Sport Forum.
The letter notes that, although EU member states, other countries and the Council of Europe have called for Russian and Belarusian representatives to be barred from international competition while the war against Ukraine continues, the IOC and some sports federations have chosen a different course. EU member states stress that the war prevents Ukrainian athletes from training on equal terms. Claims that sport can be separated from politics therefore ring hollow while the Russian and Belarusian regimes continue to use sport for political ends.
The full text of the letter is available here.
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