According to the Minister of the Interior of Lithuania Dailis Alfonsas Barakauskas, who will chair the Informal Sports Council, both of topics set for discussion at the meeting illustrate one of the most important priorities for the field of sports during Lithuania's Presidency of the EU Council: namely, the strengthening of sport as a sector.
During the meeting the ministers will discuss how the biggest international sports events, such as the Olympic Games, World Championships influence the economy and social life of EU countries. 'Every country has accumulated certain experience in organising international sports events, thus it is important to share the experience,' said D. A. Barakauskas.
The Lithuanian Basketball Federation and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) will organise presentations on the sports events of the last year for the sport ministers. A discussion on the subject of the long-term impact of investment into infrastructure for sports events will follow the presentations.
In the second session of the meeting, the ministers will discuss the general contribution that sport makes to EU economy. Formation of sport policy at EU level needs to be based on reliable analytical data, said D. A. Barakauskas. High-level experts and analysts have been invited to the meeting of ministers for this reason and will present their visions and discuss what data should be available in order to assess the contribution that the sports sector makes to the Gross Product of the European Union. Presentations in the session on sport statistics will be given by Professor Vilma Cingiene (Lithuania) and Professor Holger Preus (Germany).
