Recommendation for a Council Decision authorising the European Commission to participate, on behalf of the EU, in the negotiations for an international convention of the Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of sports results

Match-fixing is unanimously considered to be one of the major threats facing contemporary sport. Match-fixing undermines the values of sport such as integrity, fair play and respect for others. It risks alienating fans and supporters from organised sport. Moreover, match-fixing often involves organised criminal networks active on a global scale.

On 28 September 2011, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers adopted a Recommendation on the promotion of integrity of sport against manipulation of results, notably match-fixing. The Recommendation invited the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) to carry out a feasibility study on a possible international legal instrument for the prevention and repression of match-fixing.

On 15 March 2012, the Council of Europe's Conference of Ministers Responsible for Sport, meeting in Belgrade, took note of the study's conclusions and invited EPAS to launch the negotiations, in coordination with the EU, on a possible international legal instrument (Convention) against the manipulation of sports results, notably match-fixing.

On 13 June 2012, the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers endorsed this invitation. In the course of the summer of 2012, EPAS sent invitations to the countries that are parties to the European Cultural Convention to invite them to express their interest in participating in the negotiations.

On 13 November 2012 the Commission adopted this Recommendation for a Council decision authorising the Commission to participate, on behalf of the Union, in the negotiations for an international convention of the Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of sports results. The Commission's recommendation was transmitted to the Council Working Party on Sports on 15 November 2012. Following the discussions in the Council Working Party and the opinion of the Council Legal Service that the decision concerned areas falling within more than one title of the Treaties and had legal bases taken from those titles, the Council split the original draft Council decision into two decisions. The Council of 10 June 2013 adopted the first of these decisions. The second decision was adopted in September 2013 during the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)655: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:655:FIN

Draft Council Decision Authorising the European Commission to participate, on behalf of the EU, in the negotiations for an international convention of the Council of Europe to combat the manipulation of sports results as regards matters related to cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10180-2013-INIT/en/pdf

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