Abstract
On the 13 June 2008, the Court of First Instance of Bern-Laupen, Switzerland, rendered a judgment concerning the right of free movement for EU nationals in Switzerland in the domain of amateur sport. This judgment is the first in Switzerland concerning solely non-professional athletes, and possibly one of the first in Europe.This paper analyzes the application by the Court of the principle of prohibition of discrimination based on nationality in light of the Bilateral Agreement between the European Union, the European Community and Switzerland, and the limits of such principle. In this respect, the Court noted that quotas imposed on foreign athletes are not automatically illegal in amateur sport, but must remain limited to their proper objective in order to be acceptable, i.e. that in a team competition the number of foreign athletes should not be more than half of the team.
Highlights
Introduction The case CEP Cortaillod vSwiss Athletics
In the well-known Bosman case decided in 1995, the European Court of Justice judged that nationality quotas, in professional sports, were illegal in the European Union when not concerning the composition of national teams (Union royale belge des sociétés de football association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman, Royal club liégeois SA v JeanMarc Bosman and others and Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA) v JeanMarc Bosman (C-415/93) [1995] ECR 1995 p
In CEP Cortaillod, the Court highlighted the difficulty of applying these justifications to 30 sporting federations, in the field of amateur sport, since the contested nationality clauses do not affect access to the working market, but rather the living conditions of EU nationals in Switzerland (CEP Cortaillod v Swiss Athletics (2008) Causa Sport 3/2008, pp.334-335 §57)
Summary
Remarks and analysis of the decision The Right of free movement for EU nationals in Switzerland regarding amateur sport: The Bilateral Agreements Area and scope of the Bilateral Agreements Article 2 of the Bilateral Agreements Applicability of the jurisprudence of the ECJ to Switzerland Addressees of the Bilateral Agreements Limits General framework The ‘national character’ of the SIC The protection of the effort to train young athletes Effects of the judgment and remarks Conclusion Bibliography of the team. The right of free movement for EU nationals in Switzerland in the domain of amateur sport: CEP Cortaillod v Swiss Athletics. Yann Hafner Scientific Collaborator, International Centre for Sports Studies & PhD student, University of Neuchatel
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