The EU and Member States need to provide financial, strategic and practical support, in order to avoid lasting effects of the pandemic for young peple and sports. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enourmous economic impact on sports sector on all levels, starting from professional sports to grassroots sports, gyms and fitness centres, athletes, coaches, sport staff, sport events and media, say MEPs. They remind that sports sector accounts for 2.12% of the European GDP and 2.72% of total employment in the EU, representing around 5.67 million jobs. They are concerned about possible lasting damage to the economic potential and employment in sports, as well as for the public health as a whole, and urge Member States to support sports from the national funds, EU structural funds, and recovery and resilience national plans, as well as the EU Health programme. The financial aid, should there be any, must not be limited to major spectator sports only, they warn: recovery measures are of utmost importance for the grassroots sport. They ask the Commission develop an a European approach to tackle this and include short and long term measures aimed at helping the sector cope with the pandemic in the upcoming EU Work Plan for Sport (2021-2024). They call to develop new digital tools, such as sport apps, that could enable the financing of sport activities during the pandemic. Finally, they recommend to initiate a dialogue with European and international sport federations and the Member States to discuss possibilities of reopening venues and continuing major international sport events and urges the Member States and the Commission to coordinate approach regards attendance of stadia, travel restrictions and COVID-19 testing.
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