May 16 2009
Anti-Doping Conference in Greece
The European Commission organized an EU Conference on Anti-Doping on May 13 to 15 in Athens, Greece. This has been followed from the European Parliament’s proposal which is supported by Athens. This meeting was comprised of the primary organizations fighting against the doping problem of athletes with the EU sport government authorities. These organizations include the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), National Anti- Doping Organizations (NADOs), the Council of Europe, sport academics and athlete trade unions. On May 13, the journalists were invited to the opening session. This seminar was also supported by Greek Deputy Giannis Ioannidis for the Minister for Sports and Minister of Health Dimitris Avramopoulos who helped in the facilitation of this event
This conference aims to have concrete solutions to the anti-doping issues of the athletes. Part of the discussions were on how they can further improve the actions already made by national, European and International sports governing bodies. Their primary focus here is to strictly follow the implementations of the Piere de Coubertin Action Plan. This can found in the European Commission’s White Paper on Sport in 2007.
The results of the conference will greatly affect certain actions that may be imposed on the anti-doping issues and the athletes involved. These sessions were made to be able to provide more information on helpful, relevant and updated news and discussions on the issues that have never been causing conflicts to some legislative bodies.
The three workshops involved are:
Data Protection Workshop which involved in the protection of data on the EU legislation regarding to the recent finding on the anti-doping issue. This will involve the adoption of the International Standard for the Protection of Privacy (ISPP) as what has been decided by WADA on May 9. This aims to then build a more intimate relationship between the anti-doping specialists and the data protection staff so that the data can still be protected from the public.
The next workshop would require the teamwork of the pharmaceutical industry and the anti-doping agencies. The teamwork will work hand in hand when dealing with anti-doping distribution of illegal drugs especially to those who do not really need them. In the plenary session, this will be opened for discussion especially on how this should be taken to the next level; not just on a national level but also to the European level.
A laboratory workshop is the third and last one which include the WADA accredited laboratories to discuss about certain issues as well as the necessary information about anti-doping. This will help them be aware of these things in order to work for the common interest of the people.
Hopefully, With this conference, a concrete outcome could be achieve which is an improvement for the diffirent sports organizations and agencies.
