PURPOSE: to authorise Member States to become party,
in the interest of the European Union, to the Council of Europe
Convention on an integrated safety, security, and service approach
at football matches and other sports events (CETS
n°218).
PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the
act only if Parliament has given its consent to the
act.
BACKGROUND: the Convention on an integrated safety,
security, and service approach at football matches and other sports
of the Council of Europe has been open for signature and
ratification since 3 July 2016.
It aims to provide a safe, secure and welcoming
environment at football matches and other sports
events.
The Commission considers that Union support to the
Convention is important for combating violence related to sport
events and would complement the efforts already made in this field
through support to projects under the sport chapter of the Erasmus+
programme.
Given that the Union cannot become party to the
Convention, it is necessary to adopt a decision authorising Member
States to sign and ratify the Convention in the interests of the
Union.
CONTENT: by the present proposal for a Council
Decision, Member States shall be authorised to become Parties to
the Council of Europe Convention on an integrated safety,
security, and service approach at football matches and other sports
events (CETS No 218) in respect of those parts falling under the
exclusive competence of the Union.
The United Kingdom and Ireland shall participate in
the adoption of the Decision. Denmark shall not.
The Convention requires the Parties to:
- adopt an integrated, multi-agency and balanced
approach towards safety, security and service, that is to say,
an approach based on the notion that safety, security and service
measures at football matches and other sports events invariably
overlap, are interrelated in terms of impact, need to be balanced
and cannot be designed or implemented in isolation;
- ensure national and local co-ordination
arrangements for the purpose of developing and implementing a
multi-agency integrated approach to safety, security and
service;
- take various measures with a view to ensuring
safety, security and service inside sports stadiums; for
example, they must ensure that stadiums’ operating
arrangements make provision for effective liaison with the police
and with emergency services and other partner agencies, and
incorporate policies and procedures on matters such as racist or
discriminatory behaviour;
- encourage all relevant agencies and stakeholders to
work together to create a safe, secure and welcoming
environment in public places outside stadiums and ensure that
relevant agencies develop contingency and emergency
plans;
- ensure that policing strategies are developed,
regularly evaluated and refined, which take account of good
practices and that the police work in partnership with relevant
stakeholders;
- take all possible measures to reduce the risk of
incidents of violence and disorder and to ensure, in accordance
with national and international law, that effective exclusion
arrangements, appropriate to the character and location of risk are
in place to deter and prevent such incidents;
- co-operate in seeking to ensure that individuals
committing offences abroad receive appropriate sanctions and
to consider empowering the judicial or administrative authorities
responsible to impose sanctions on individuals who have caused or
contributed to incidents of football-related violence and/or
disorder, with the possibility of imposing restrictions on
travel to football events held in another country.
Lastly, the Convention requires each Member State to
set up or designate a national football information point of
a police nature (NFIPs), which shall act as the direct, central
contact point for exchanging relevant information and for
facilitating international police cooperation in connection with
football matches with an international dimension.