Presentacíon de las políticas de colaboración entre universidad y empresa
a través del deporte en España
Madrid, 26 June 2008

Dear President Cerezo, President Campano,
Magnifico Rector, My Friend Jose-Maria Gil Robles,
Distinguished Guests, Friends of Sport and Friends of Europe,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to be here with you in this beautiful Vicente Calderón
stadium and to learn from you about the cooperation between universities and
companies through sport in Spain. I understand Atlético was established in 1903
at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, when a group of students founded the
Athletic Club. So, Atlético is a well established Club with a long tradition and,
as it looks, it had a very strong link with academia since the beginning.
I am pleased to see that your team will participate in the Champions
League next season. Congratulations. And I wish Spain to be successful tonight
in Vienna at the UEFA Euro 2008 Championship. Sunday night I plan to go to
watch the final match. Shall we see Spain playing then?

Before saying a few words on the cooperation between universities and
business in general— and through sport in particular—I would like to pass on
the main messages from the White Paper on Sport and the Pierre de Coubertin’s
action plan the Commission presented a year ago. It speaks more than any other
policy document in the EU until now on specificity of sport and sport-related
rules. For the first time ever we have got an inclusion of sport in the EU Treaty
article. My dream is to have in future a popular sport programme in the EU as
we have today in education, namely Erasmus.

Our football is the best in the world. Europe is a superpower in football,
but not in other domains. The reason is that we love football, we invest in it, we
care for the quality through open competitions, and the full mobility of players
and trainers is a reality, differently from the universities. History of the
European integration and the European football is linked together: Europe
helped football to grow in excellence, football helped to integrate Europe. So
there are many lessons to be drawn from sport.

But sport is not only a very big show; it’s a popular movement of massive
proportions. Both as a show and as a practice, it keeps important social values
alive, such as team spirit, solidarity, respect and fair play. Sport is education,
culture, it generates inclusion, promotes talents and solidarity. Via sport we need
to promote values which are important for Europe.

According to a survey, Europe has some 700,000 sports clubs and
approximately 60% of European citizens practice sport on a regular basis.
Especially through its role in formal and non–formal education, sport improves
Europe’s human capital. The values conveyed through sport help develop
knowledge, motivation, and spirit of sacrifice.

Finally, let us not forget the health and educational benefits of sport
activities, especially when practiced in our schools and universities. Values
promoted by sport are equally needed for the life and vitality of any democratic
society. Therefore we need to promote and protect sport in the EU against,
unfortunately, such largely spread phenomena of violence, doping, racism, or
corruption.

This is why we have started to support sport and physical activity as an
integral part of our education and training policies. All the programmes under
my responsibility recognise the importance of sport, including those devoted to
schools, vocational education and training, higher education and adult training.
I am also convinced that we can make better use of the potential of sport
as an instrument for social inclusion. Sport can help revitalise the economic and
social environment in disadvantaged areas. Non–profit sports organisation that
work for social cohesion and the inclusion of vulnerable groups can be regarded
as social services of general interest.

Finally, in addition to its social and civic benefits, sport is also good for
the economy. Sport is a dynamic and fast–growing industry whose macro
economic impact is often underestimated. Sport can generate growth and create
jobs; it can be a tool of local and regional development, urban regeneration and
rural development.

For example, it is estimated that the latest football World Cup contributed
almost 0.25 % to the gross domestic product of Germany in the second trimester
of 2006. It also brought in almost €1.5bn in tourist income throughout the
country between May and July. It will be interesting to see the impact of the
European Championship in Switzerland and Austria.

I am happy that next month we are going to open the first social dialogue
platform in area of sport in Europe, namely in professional football among the
UEFA, EPFL, ECA, and FIFPRO. It is important beginning and example for
other areas of professional sport.

Although we all know that the sports movement is much larger than
football, we cannot deny that football is the undisputed champion in terms of
turnover, popularity and impact. Football is a growing European business
capable of generating considerable income. The total European football market
amounted to €13.6bn in 2006/07, and revenues had grown by one billion Euros
over the previous season. Revenues for the Spanish Liga alone grew by 15 % in
2006/07 to reach a total of €1.4bn during that season. A study suggested that
sport in a broader sense generated value–added for €407bn in the EU in 2004,
accounting for a staggering 3.7% of its GDP.

And sport is a labour intensive industry. According to same study, it gave
employment to 15 million people, or 5.4% of the EU labour force. Because sport
provides the ideal content for TV and the other media, a growing part of its
economic value is linked to intellectual property rights. These rights include
copyright, commercial communications, trademarks, and other rights.

In an increasingly globalised and dynamic industry, effective enforcement
of global intellectual property rights is essential for a healthy sports economy.
Dr. Guillén mentioned research: we increased the budget of the 7th Framework
Programme for research by 75%, and I think that there should be space for
research in sport. Lifelong learning programme represents almost 40% increase,
as well. There are negative sides and concerns like doping, violence and racism:
we need to protect sport from this.

But I know I am preaching to the choir here. I was impressed when I
learned about Atlético’s many partnerships with higher education institutions. I
understand you have set up alliances with the Universidad Camilo José Cela in
Madrid, the Universities of London and Coventry, the IESE Business School of
the University of Navarra, and other prestigious institutions.

The agreement with the General Council of the Spanish Chamber of
Commerce for the training of professional athletes and former athletes with the
objective of creating a masters program in business management seems to me a
good example of how a sport club can take care of its main asset—that is, its
athletes, its human resources.

I really appreciate and commend this initiative because it corresponds to
our call—included in our White Paper—for the reintegration of professional
sportspeople into the labour market at the end of their careers. They should not
be left behind because they are over 30!

Finally, I understand you have established the Instituto Universitario del
Atlético de Madrid, in collaboration with the Universidad Camilo José Cela.
Looking at the stated objectives of your institute, it seems to me that the title of
our conference today takes on a whole new meaning. Your institute is a prime
example of cooperation between university and enterprise, your club being the
enterprise that teams up with a university to generate and disseminate the
specialist knowledge you need to sharpen your business edge.

I also commend the Universidad Camilo José Cela for its openness and
enterprising spirit. I had the pleasure to welcome President Cerezo in Brussels in
February when we started the University/Business Forum, which promotes
cooperation between higher education institutions and enterprises on curricular
development, continuing education, governance and mobility.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am convinced that a positive and constructive partnership between
universities and business will bring benefit to companies, universities and
students alike. To make progress in this area I have launched a new initiative
called the University–Business Forum. The first meeting of the Forum took
place last February, and President Cerezo made an important contribution to it.
One of its next sessions will take place in the Canary Islands in October. I wish
our forum can provide a European platform for dialogue between stakeholders
on both sides.

At the end of the day, the EU is about building bridges, bringing down
barriers and allowing even the most distant parties to find a common ground and
talk to each other. I am happy to report that all participants expressed their
support to our initiative: political leaders, as well as representatives of the
worlds of education and enterprise.

The debate showed the potential benefits of more and better cooperation. There
is a lot of work to do together, and I believe we need to strike while the iron is
hot. We are planning three smaller thematic forums this year on continuing
education, knowledge transfer and curriculum development. It is possible that
the last of these takes place in the Canary Islands. We are in contact with the
regional Government that has offered to host this event. And next year, most
probably again in February, we will organise another large forum in Brussels. Of
course, Atlético is welcome to bring its unique experience again to our platform
of dialogue.

As I said earlier, I was impressed by your cooperation initiatives and I
would encourage you to continue your work and inform other organisations
about the positive impact it has. Much of the work we do at the European
Commission on education policies is about opening spaces for debate and
putting issues on the table.

In the case of the link between business and enterprise, I am convinced
that many of the barriers can be found in people’s minds: perceptions,
expectations, hopes and fears. We are talking about two groups of people—
academics and business people—who sometimes misunderstand each other.
There is little mutual trust, there is fear, and there is scepticism. This must
change. On the strength of our experience, I can assure you that there is nothing
like a successful example to change people’s minds.

I will conclude urging you to continue in your constructive endeavours
bringing fruits not only for Spain. Words are calling, but deeds are pulling:
Verba vocant, exempla trahunt. Hard working, team working and networking is
the recipe for success, both for the Atlético and Europe.
I want to finish by quoting Erasmus Desiderius from Rotterdam, who
gave us the inspiration for the name of our most popular programme. He said
that there are three categories of people: Ones who have dreams, others who
face hard realities, and then those who are able to turn dreams into reality.
Hundreds years ago an excellent team of Atlético was a dream. Today it is a
reality we call a dream team.
I wish you to be and to keep on in the third Erasmian category.

Thank you. Muchas gracias.